Plucky and Prideful
by signelchan
Summary: Being a new hire at the school her sister built and her brother runs, all Lissa expects from the job is a paycheck, a place to live, and maybe a friend or two. But things don't ever go quite as one expects, especially when there's someone like the new gym teacher roaming around. A story of a young woman coming into what her life is meant to be like. [Modern AU]
1. The Family's School

Lissa could vividly remember the day that her sister died, as if it had been earlier that week, not over three years before. She remembered that the teachers at school had to break the news to the students, and while everyone was sad that the woman that had put their entire education system together was gone from mysterious causes, it hit her hardest of all, simply because that was her older sister. Emmeryn may have nearly been a walking goddess to most of the students, but she _was_ a goddess to Lissa, and that day was one that rested heavily on her mind whenever she so much as set foot in the school building.

Which was why that, when her well-meaning brother told her that he was going to get her a job at that very same school after she graduated, it was a bittersweet moment. Yeah, she had loved going there, and she still had friends who would be attending while she was working there, but that was the school her sister built. Everything about that place had Emmeryn's hand in its creation, and those memories were hard to shake off, no matter how much Chrom told her that it was just a family thing for her to work there too. He had taken up their sister's position after she died, although he wasn't prepared for such a role and had many other things to be focusing on aside from running a school for under-privileged high schoolers (even though most of the student body had been made up of students whose parents sent them there because the education quality seemed so much better), but he had managed to handle his new work life and, eventually, his family life fairly well for those first three years after Emmeryn's death. But he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep everything together on his own, and that's why he needed Lissa to come back to the school in some capacity.

She had just graduated that spring, though, and there wasn't going to be much she could do—aside from take on a position as a school nurse. Even then, she wasn't going to be able to get qualified over the course of a summer to become an actual nurse, but she could take enough classes to be registered to do _something_ of use. And that something was plenty for Chrom to bring her aboard the sparse staff at the school, because she was family and had enough skill and wouldn't be too hurt if her pay wasn't the greatest. (That was a lie, she was very hurt, but he sweetened that deal by allowing her to stay living with him, his wife, and their daughter, and she wasn't going to say no to that.)

Since she wasn't a teacher, she didn't have to go to the training sessions that took place over the summer, which was fine because she had been attending her own classes to be able to actually hold her new position. However, it did leave her at a slight disadvantage going into the school year, because all of the teachers had gotten to know each other, and she, the new pseudo-nurse, didn't know anyone aside from the people she recognized as Chrom's friends, and even then, it had been years since she had talked to them. Almost as long as it had been since their sister died, she realized, but those sad memories had no place being on her mind, not when she needed to make up the ground she had lost by not attending summer training in the few weeks before the semester actually started.

A lot of that time was spent setting up her office, though, and that meant that the only real time she had for socializing was when everyone was having meal breaks—and even then, she chose to sit with her brother because he was a perfect person to have around for socialization purposes. People came to him to say hello, and they'd end up meeting her in the process, always introduced as the "spunky little sister and new EMT" at the school. She beamed when her real position name was used, because it sounded so professional and real and so much more than a girl who had just graduated from the very school months ago should have as her title. No one that she met really seemed impressed, even with her cheerful smile and Chrom's insistence that she was a perfect fit for the position.

The only people who even stayed to talk to her were some of Chrom's closest friends, ones that she'd known for years and years; they weren't there to get to know her, they were there to refresh their memories of her. To move past her being that awkward twelve-year-old that had accidentally ripped Chrom's bedroom door off at his sixteenth birthday party. To forget all the other embarrassing things she had done when she was younger. To see that she was older, more mature, and ready for what the school year would bring.

But then there was one person who she did vaguely recognize that came up to her and didn't say a word, mostly because someone else was talking to her when he arrived. He just watched, muscular arms crossed over his chest, and it made her slightly uncomfortable because he was so big compared to her. Was he sizing her up for some sort of battle? But the active conversation ended and he stuck his hand out for her to shake, something that Chrom saw happening and shook his head at. "Aw, c'mon man, it's only polite," the guy said, noticing the displeased reaction he was given. "Want a handshake too?"

"No, I want you to remember that this is my sister. I'm going to be protective of her, especially around boneheads like you." The guy sighed and dropped his hand right as Lissa went for it, something else Chrom noticed. "And you, Lissa, I know you're your own woman now, but please don't get involved with him. Last thing I need is for him to corrupt you."

"I can handle myself and my own decisions, thanks," she replied, smiling at her brother before turning to face the new guy, her hand still outstretched. "Now, I think introductions are in order! I'm Lissa. Obviously I'm this guy's sister, but don't think that I'm anything like him. At least I know how to not be so uptight about people giving me handshakes."

As Chrom grumbled something about how unprofessional his sister was acting, the other guy's face lit up and he about shoved his giant hand into Lissa's tiny one. "Nice t'meet you, Lissa! The name's Vaike. As in, _the_ Vaike. Your bro probably told me lots of stories about you from back when we went here. Man, we ruled this place with an iron fist. Or something."

"He might have mentioned you a time or two." His enthusiasm was almost contagious, because Lissa could feel herself getting pumped up about meeting this guy. However, she couldn't remember if she'd heard much about him. Some of the other people she'd been reintroduced to that day, like Frederick (who was the only person aside from her brother who she actually had seen more recently than Chrom's graduation) and Miriel (who she only remembered because she was the reason Chrom had even gotten to graduate in the first place), she could name a time and place where she'd seen them. But this Vaike guy? He just looked familiar. "Or maybe he didn't. It's been a while since he's told me high school adventure stories."

"Well don't you worry one bit! Ol' Vaike here is gonna remind you of all the things he did back when he was a student, and it'll be fun." He winked at her. "Mostly because if I'm not in the gym with my classes, I'm with some student getting ice or something. Kids like gettin' hurt when you play rough sports."

"Which is why I don't want you getting involved with him," Chrom interjected, noticing that his sister was getting a bit starry-eyed at what Vaike was saying. "In his semester of student teaching that he did, he ended up having sixteen students with broken bones because of his…extreme methods of playing."

"If he's such a hazard, why'd you hire him then?"

Lissa's question caught Chrom off-guard, and he sputtered a bit before finally replying with, "Because he's an old friend and I had to do him a favor. Now promise me you won't get involved with him!"

"I make no promises," she said, grinning from ear to ear. Just from that, she had a feeling that the school year was going to be a fun experience. At least, if she didn't have to deal with broken bones, anyway.

* * *

The first day of school was by far the most sobering experience Lissa had ever had in her life up to that point, fueled greatly in part by the fact that she was standing with the teachers and staff greeting all of the students as they came in, seeing familiar faces that she had gone to class alongside just months before. A lot of the students recognized her and she had to remember to keep it professional, that now as a member of the staff of the school she had to distance herself from the personal relationships with the students, unless she had been really close with them before then. That was the rule her and Chrom had set for that circumstance, and she had every intention of keeping to it.

That meant she only hugged a handful of people that she considered herself "close" with, including one of her best friends who was honestly surprised to see her there. But she couldn't explain to him the entire story as he was being pushed past her and the other greeters by the flood of students being let in the building, and she figured that she'd get her time to tell him the story later. It turned out that the story would be told for her not very long after that, though, because of the first-day assembly the school held to introduce everyone to the new people who would be guiding them through the year.

That was where the day got incredibly sobering, because she was standing with all the other new staff members when the lights in the small auditorium dimmed and the video explaining the reason for the school existing came on. Unlike every other time she saw the video, there wasn't a friend nearby to cling to as she heard her sister's voice talking happily about the school, and she couldn't exactly run up to Chrom, who was at the podium beneath the screen showing the video, because then everyone would instantly assume she was nothing more than a clingy crybaby. And that just wasn't true. She had to stand there, alongside some of the new teachers, and try her hardest not to cry over hearing her sister's voice—which was doable, except she knew a few tears got through despite her attempts to stop them. Once the lights came back on and Chrom started talking about how great the year was going to be and all that sort of nonsense, before handing the microphone off to someone who the students would see on a daily basis.

It was then that people started getting introduced, starting with the teachers who had been there since the beginning, and going in order of when they had joined the teaching team. Several of the names that were said, and the people who waved when they were announced, were met with applause and Lissa couldn't help but smile at that, because those were the teachers she had gotten to know in her time as a student at the school, and the realization that she was now working alongside them was enough to bring that smile to her face. But as the names got newer and the applause dwindled, because not as many students had gotten to know those teachers, it did hit her that when it got to her, there wasn't going to be that sort of reaction. There was no way. These people had been her peers but now she was their superior, and very few of them, if any, were going to appreciate that.

The thing she hadn't accounted for was that she wasn't the only ex-student who had been added to the staff, and she was definitely one of the more memorable ones simply because she had just graduated that spring. She also had assumed that the person at the microphone would have remained at that station through the duration of the introductions, and she was dead wrong about that; once the last person who had been there the previous year had been introduced (one of the two people who manned both the office and the library), Chrom had taken place at the podium once more and actually called for all the new people to stand next to him, so that he could give them a more in-depth introduction for everyone.

Six people moved to the position he asked. Five of them were people he had known while he was in school, and the sixth was her, his little sister. And he made sure to embarrass the hell out of all six of them, but her especially. That was okay, because that was what he liked to do, although doing that in front of an entire student body was a bit overwhelming, but the roaring applause that was delivered after he was done telling everyone that the new person in charge of keeping their cuts covered and their medication allotted was none other than his recently-graduated sister, it more than made up for that. It didn't, however, make up for the fact that everything was so strange and weird to her, but she figured that the resolution to that problem was come as soon as she accepted that she was actually working at her old high school. Either then, or when she wasn't friends with some of the people in the crowd.

* * *

"May I come in?" It was lunchtime for the students, and that was the first time all day that Lissa had actually been in her new office, just sort of evaluating everything that had happened so far in the day. The person at her door had knocked before speaking, and when she saw who it was she enthusiastically smiled, waving for him to enter. "Okay, just wanted to make sure before I came in and scared you or something. Don't think we need the new nurse having a heart attack on the first day."

"Oh Ricken, always being so considerate of me. You're always allowed in here, unless you're skipping class." She tried to take on a stern voice, but the result of that was only making her giggle and that caused him to chuckle as well. "But what brings you over here? Shouldn't you be, well, eating lunch with your friends?"

He gave a small shrug, sitting down on one of the chairs in the office, before pulling his lunch out of his backpack. "You're my friend, and I thought it would be cool to eat lunch with you. You know, like how we used to before this?"

"If you were anyone else, I'd have to turn down that offer, but since Chrom knows how close of friends we are, he can just deal with this. You're totally welcome to come in here every day if you want." Lissa looked at Ricken, right as he offered up some of his food to her. "What? Oh, I can't take your stuff! Trust me, us staff members have enough food around here to last us a lifetime."

"I just wanted to offer. Felt it would be polite, and I bet you could use some more food in you, especially with all the running around you're doing today." He retracted his handful of carrot sticks. "But that's cool that you finally are allowed to eat staff food. Remember when we'd go sit in Chrom's office just to snag his snacks?"

"And get in trouble because they weren't for us? Of course I remember that!" Sharing that memory and bursting into laughter at it, it was less like they were staff member and student and more like the two good friends they always were. But the fact that they were indeed not just friends anymore was definitely heavy on their minds, and when another knock was heard at the door, the laughter stopped and Lissa called for the person to enter. The tanned and muscular arm that poked in the door first was more than enough to sour her mood. "Oh, it's just you. Did you already break some poor kid?"

"No way miss, just checkin' to see if you'd like a lunch date with the ol' Vaike," the person attached to the arm said, even though his body was still outside the door. "Yes or no?"

She looked to Ricken, who had started to pack up his meal with a forlorn look on his face, and shook her head indignantly. "No way, not today. Chrom did warn me about you, after all, and I'm going to at least _try_ to heed his warnings."

The arm retracted out the door, and before it slammed closed she heard a sigh, followed with, "Fine, 's cool. The Vaike didn't really want to dine with you anyway."

"What's his problem?" Ricken asked, after the door was firmly closed and the person who had opened it was gone. "Isn't he one of the new teachers?"

"He is, and I don't think he has a problem…well, aside from really wanting a friend. And I could be his friend, totally, but Chrom told me that he's kind of uncontrollable and really weird, and I don't think I need that in my life." Lissa sighed, looking to her door with what just happened on her mind. "If he hadn't asked like that, maybe I'd have considered, but…"

Ricken unpacked his meal again, now knowing that he wasn't going to be kicked out for some other guy. "But I'm here, and you wouldn't tell me I could be here just to make me leave, right?" When she nodded, he smiled. "It would have been okay if you had. I mean, other friends and all. Could sit with my classmates. But you're cooler than them."

"I must be pretty cool if two guys want to eat with me, I guess!" Had she known that not a minute later her brother was going to swing by to see if she wanted to sit in his office and eat, she would have waited to say those words. But at least Chrom wasn't too mad that she had allowed Ricken to dine with her, anyway. She knew that he would have been much angrier if he had walked into the office to see that Vaike guy sitting in that spot instead.

* * *

The first few weeks of school were a lot of the same, just getting to know the ropes of the job, and while they were fun, they were also a lot harder than Lissa had expected, to the point that by the time she was leaving in the evening with her brother, all she wanted to do was sleep and prepare herself for the next day. That wasn't exactly something that she could logically do though, not when her brother was technically her boss and wanted to know everything he could about her day, and not when she'd get back to his house and immediately start getting asked the same questions all over again by her brother's curious wife. Lissa liked Robin, she really did, but there had to have been some sort of limit to the questions that woman could ask her within moments of setting foot in the door.

The questions weren't random, as each and every one of them related to how working in a school felt, and how it was to be part of such a community. But they were things that Chrom could have been asked, even though he really didn't do much in the way of interacting with students or even most of the staff on a regular basis, and that bugged Lissa a bit. Why did she have to be asked everything? That was something she finally got around to asking by the end of the first month of school, after getting home dead tired and being asked something about education standards or whatever: "Why is it that you're asking _me_ this stuff? I'm not a teacher, you know. Chrom could answer better than me."

"He could, but he doesn't. He just tells me to refer back to my textbooks, and I've got a feeling that my professors would appreciate honest comments more than ones taken from the texts." Taking the somewhat snappish question in stride, Robin gave Lissa a small smile, trying to get her spirits up a bit. "Come on, I want to make sure that I can graduate as soon as possible and finally get to teaching in that place."

"Then you really shouldn't be asking me questions. I don't really know the answers, and it's not my fault that you didn't get to graduate on time." Her sigh that she gave was loud and drawn-out, probably unnecessary but she didn't care, although she could see in Robin's eyes that it was fairly rude. "Okay, okay, sorry! I've just had a long day…"

"That would make two of us, you know. Probably all three if Chrom actually did anything aside from nap in his office, but that's his own business." Running her fingers through one of her long ponytails, Robin tried to play off the rudeness she had just been shown with an awkward smile. "I bet you had to do all sorts of helping students out today, didn't you?"

Lissa looked to the floor for a second, thinking about what she actually had done at work that day: she had sat in her office and reorganized a shelf, then had her usual lunch with Ricken, only for it to get interrupted by Vaike like it regularly did. After that, it was just a lot of monitoring the halls. Not a single person had actually come to her for help. "Not exactly," she admitted, looking back up. "It wasn't a very active day today. But we had to get there early this morning to let some of the teachers in so that they could prepare something for one of the classes. So it's been a long day."

"Uh huh, a long day of nothing. You're just as bad as your brother when it comes to knowing what a 'long' day means. I would consider a 'long' day to be when you get woken up early after being up late making sure that the little one actually gets to sleep, and that wake-up call wakes her up. So _my_ entire day has been spent either watching Lucina run around or doing my classwork, and let me tell you, that's not fun at all." As if she heard her name being said by her mother, little Lucina came toddling into the room, arms raised for someone to pick her up—a task taken on by Lissa, who had started feeling bad for how rude she had been. "So when I'm trying to get answers out of you to make sure I can do something aside from watching her all day, please don't get so rude about it."

"I understand…" She really did. Knowing how thankful her brother was for getting the time away from the adventurous child, she could only imagine how hard it would have been for Robin to have to spend all day with the kid, going so far as to take her to the high-level college classes she attended. "But at the same time, it's not really my fault that she's a problem you guys have. It's not like I made the decision to—"

"Hey, let's leave that kind of conversation for somewhere where Lucina won't hear it, please." That was Chrom interjecting from the other side of the room, trying to play the role of keeping everything in check. "We don't need her thinking she's unwanted or something."

"Chrom, she's still too little to pick up on the meanings of words. We've gone over this before." Taking the child out of Lissa's arms, Robin cuddled the girl for a moment before walking her over to where her father was. "Right now, all she's learning is how much we love her and that she really needs to get on learning to talk. I've read that most children can speak by her age, and she doesn't seem like she wants to. Maybe it's because you don't talk to her enough."

He laughed, which in turn made Lucina start to giggle. "Or maybe it's because you've taken her to every class you've had since she was born, and she's just got too many words in that mind of hers to decide which one she wants to say first."

"Hey, she's only gone to all those classes because you're always at work when I need to be in class, and I don't exactly like the idea of letting someone watch her." When Chrom went to protest that, Robin moved one hand from holding Lucina so that she could put it over his mouth. "And no, don't even say it. She isn't going to the school and spending all day in your office. Or Lissa's office, for that matter."

Before he responded, he made sure to push the hand aside and hold it down to let him speak uninterrupted. "But what about when I let you come aboard the staff? What will you do with her then? You can't say I'm not allowed to keep her with me, but turn around and keep her with you."

"That's a bridge we'll have to cross when we get to it, isn't it?"

"I think it would be cool if Lucina got to come hang out at the school sometimes," Lissa said, having been listening to the conversation that was happening. "I mean, we'd have to keep a good eye on her to make sure the students didn't do anything to her, but wouldn't it be super cool to have her running around and keeping spirits up?"

"Not even a little bit." The response came from both of the child's parents simultaneously, causing them to look between each other and laugh, before Robin continued with responding. "It sounds like it would be fun, but this girl is a terror. She'd cause so much trouble that it wouldn't be worth it. That's why we'll have to decide on what to do with her later, because it's hard to say right now."

"Don't worry, I understand that too. But again, I don't get why you two let this happen in the first place, because…" Lissa let her voice trail off into nothing when she saw them staring at her, both not wanting to hear where her thought was going. "Right. So, uh, isn't it my turn to cook tonight? I should get on that, shouldn't I?" Her hands clasped together and the stares stopped, the topic at hand being successfully dropped. But as she went to go do her rightful duty as a guest of the home, she couldn't help but think about the situation that her brother and sister-in-law were in, with a child that they hadn't prepared for that they had to take care of and account for. Her existence seemed to be hard enough to work around, especially since both parents had so much they needed to do with their lives, and it honestly made Lissa question why anyone would ever let themselves get in that situation.

It also made her question why her brother had forced her into working at the school when he clearly could have used her as a nanny more.

* * *

At lunchtime the next day, much like every day, there was a meeting happening inside of Lissa's office, one between one of the students and the friendly school EMT. But on top of that, there was a visitor who had come to spend the time with friends, both of whom were going to be in that office anyway. And if there was any worse group to have gathered together, it was the trio of Lissa, Ricken, and their great friend Maribelle, who had graduated the year before alongside the plucky school staff member. Her presence had been a surprise to the others, as well as everyone else who knew her around the school, because as far as anyone had known, she was off at some rich private college continuing her education with her parents' money. "Yes, well, I happened to be back in town for the week and figured I should stop by to see some people who matter to me," she explained as she settled herself into the seat next to Ricken's usual. "This office was not exactly where I was expecting this meeting to happen, however."

"Sorry about that, then," Lissa said with a smile at her friend. "If I had known you were around, I would have told Chrom to find someone to fill in for me for the day! He understands that everyone needs a best friend sometimes, and I can't get one as easily as he can, since his best friend works here and all."

"Oh yes, remind me to stop by that classroom later. I brought in some things that I think your brother's best friend would appreciate immensely." The color in Maribelle's cheeks was turning a bright red as she spoke about this nameless best friend, even though Lissa knew exactly who she was referring to, and Ricken could have hazarded a guess had he needed to. "Maybe if he appreciates it enough, he will see me as less as a pest and more as the beautiful woman I've become."

"I think you've always been beautiful." Mumbling under his breath, Ricken hadn't expected for anyone to hear him, much less for Maribelle to react by playfully smacking his leg. "Well, it's true. So what if some stuffy teacher here doesn't see it?"

After smacking his leg again, she cleared her throat and fanned herself with her hand. "Do not refer to such a fine man as a 'stuffy teacher,' not in my presence. I am sure he would be appalled to hear you call him that, at any rate."

"He'd be bothered that you were calling him fine, though. Maribelle, I know, you're not a student and he wasn't a teacher here when you were, but that's still kind of weird. Even though you do know him through Chrom and not through—" Lissa was cut off by the office door opening without warning, and a bouquet of flowers being shoved inside, held by a familiar muscular arm. "—Vaike! What are you doing?"

"Flowers for the lovely lady, 's all," the man replied, the bouquet shaking a bit in his grasp, "Take 'em, please. Don't break the Vaike's heart like this."

Unsure of what was happening, Maribelle leaned towards Ricken and asked him in a hushed whisper, "Who's this Vaike guy and why's he bringing our little Lissa flowers?"

"He's the new gym teacher around here, and I think he's got a bit of a thing for her," Ricken replied, trying not to look at the arm of one of his teachers sticking in through the office door. "He comes by a lot and asks her to lunch, but he's never done this before."

"I see." Sitting back upright, Maribelle took a second to compose herself, before shouting: "Take the flowers, Lissa! This poor gentleman went through the trouble of bringing them to you, the least you can do is thank him for it by taking them!"

She sat still for a moment, shocked that this was actually happening, before she wheeled her desk chair close enough to grab the bouquet and get them from Vaike's grasp. "Er, thank you for the gift," she said, looking at the flowers that she now held. "They're really pretty."

"As pretty as you are, in fact. Hope you like 'em. Also hope we can do that lunch sometime." The hand gave her a thumbs up before it disappeared back on the other side of the door, the latching sound filling the silence that followed that last statement. Then the office grew silent once more, with Lissa staring at the flowers, Maribelle looking at Lissa to see what she would do, and Ricken sitting with his eyes on his lunch, hoping that his presence in the office hadn't been noticed by the teacher who had just been there.

"So, it's not okay for me to be interested in one of the teachers, but it's okay for you to have a suitor in one?" Maribelle's question finally broke the silence, although her laugh that she followed it with showed that she wasn't expecting an answer, not for a long while, not when Lissa's eyes hadn't moved from the flowers since she took them. "Even though it seems you weren't aware you had a suitor, were you?"

Shaking her head slowly in her stunned silence, Lissa turned the bouquet to check it for any sort of note of explanation or something, and found nothing. The only explanation she had was what Vaike had said when he handed them to her, that he thought they were as pretty as her and that he wanted to have lunch with her sometime. And after that, could she really say no to him anymore? One lunch couldn't really hurt, not after how friendly he had been, could it? "I wasn't aware at all…" Except she had been aware that he liked her, ever since they had met and he had been so charming and enthusiastic with her.

"And his proposal of a lunch date? You _will_ take him up on that, won't you?"

"If she does, I'm gonna make sure I am not around for it. I don't think I could handle seeing Coach Vaike in a situation where he's not yelling at me to run laps." Ricken's response made Maribelle slap him again, but he felt it was worth it, especially because he wanted to make it clear he didn't want to be around for anything like that.

"I think I have to take him up on it, just once. He's not as bad as Ricken's making him sound, I'm sure," Lissa finally said, causing her companions to have opposite reactions. One shrunk back in his seat, the other started to clap for her friend's decision, and that made Lissa really hope that she wasn't making a decision that she'd regret.

Of course, her friends' reactions were important enough, but the one that mattered most was her brother's, because he had been the one to give her the warning about getting involved with Vaike. "He brought you those flowers?" Chrom asked that evening, when they were on their way home. "Can't say I'm not at least slightly impressed with his attempt to prove me wrong about me not wanting you and him interacting. I still don't like it."

"Come on, it'll just be one lunch. Just to test the waters." Her voice was shaking a bit as she spoke, because she had never been in such a situation before. It was so adult and still so unreal to her that some guy had actually brought her flowers and sort of asked her on a date! "If he's as bad as you make him sound, it'll go terrible and we'll part as acquaintances that'll never talk again. It'll be fine, I think!"

"You sound like you let Maribelle talk you into why this is a good idea, but okay. You are an adult, and that means you do get to make that choice on your own. Just don't cry too much to me when he shows you what kind of person he really is." He paused for a second, looking at his sister as she admired her flowers some more. "Hold on, those look like some expensive flowers. Maybe it would be a good idea if you left those in your office. It would brighten the space a bit, don't you think?"

"I think you're right!" she replied, before actually thinking about that suggestion. "Hey, wait a minute, are you telling me not to bring these home because you think _someone_ will get jealous?" Listening to Chrom sputter as he tried to come up with some way to tell her she was wrong was funny enough, but it was even better when he was more flustered trying to come up with a response to what followed. "You're getting weird about this because he brought me flowers nicer than anything you take home to Robin, aren't you?"

"N-no, that's not it at all!" he finally spit out, glaring at his sister as he did. "She just won't like it that I didn't bring her anything home, that's all."

"Sure it is," she said, elbowing him in the side as she drew out the "u" for several seconds. "I think you just want me to keep you from having to sleep on the couch from being a terrible husband, that's all."

He shook his hands in front of him, almost frantically. "That's not it at all, Lissa! Don't act like I'm terrible! She really won't like it if I don't bring her something and she sees those flowers you got!"

To save her brother from the fate known as sleeping on the couch, she did end up taking those flowers back into the school building and into her office, but while she was in there she noticed that a couple of the lights in the hall headed towards the gym were still on, even though everyone should have been gone for the night.

* * *

 **A/N: I can't believe I'm actually posting this AU fic (this is the first of _nine_ chapters, by the way). It was supposed to be something short and sweet, but it quickly became something I couldn't stop writing. Over 60,000 words later, written over the course of ten days, and it's time to start posting this beauty.**

 **Reviews/follows/favorites are appreciated, but just seeing the view count go up is enough to make my heart flutter. I hope y'all enjoy what's to come here though! c:**


	2. To The Extremes

At lunch across the following few school days, Lissa completely expected for Vaike to barge in like he had that day with the flowers and ask her to lunch again, because now she knew that she was going to take him up on his offer. But he didn't come around, or if he did, he didn't do his usual door-opening routine with disregard to whatever it was that she might have been doing at that moment, and that worried her a bit. She knew he was still coming to work, because she could hear his boasts filling the halls sometimes, but he was seemingly avoiding her at all costs. Was it something to do with _how_ she had accepted his flowers, with someone else convincing her to do it? Or was it that he had given up hope on getting that lunch that he seemed to so badly want?

It turned out that neither was the case, something she found out a week to the day after she had received the bouquet (which was sitting in a vase on her desk, brightening up her office just a bit). Like usual, it was her and Ricken sitting in the room, him eating and telling her about little class things while she listened intently and gave as much input as a person in her position was able to, and everything seemed as if it was the same as it had always been—until the door came flying wide open, and into the office came walking a clearly nervous Vaike. "Heard you were wanting to have lunch with me," he said, forcing a smile at her. "About time, 'cause it's always a fun time to have lunch with the Vaike."

She had been mid-sentence when he came in, which meant she had to awkwardly turn her attention from Ricken to the unexpected visitor. "Couldn't you have at least warned me before this?" she asked, noticing his faked smile and how stiff his movements were. "Maybe having this planned out would have done us both a favor."

"Planned out? You make it sound like we're having us a date. It's just lunch." Relaxing just a bit, Vaike's eyes shifted from looking at Lissa to her companion. "Oh hey there, kid. You have any reason why you're here? Should Teach here go get someone to dispose of this guy?"

Packing his food back into his bag as fast as he could, Ricken, shaking much like a leaf, couldn't muster the courage to reply to his teacher. However, Lissa very well could, seeing how intimidated her friend was at the situation. "He's fine, Vaike. He comes in here every day because we're friends. Have been for years. You don't need to worry about him."

"Huh, y'know what? That's cool. Gotta always have friends." Giving a hearty laugh, Vaike offered a hand for a fist bump to Ricken, but the younger boy was so focused on getting his stuff together that he didn't notice, and soon he was running out of the office with not even a goodbye to who he had been there for. "That boy's got problems. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice kid, but he has never liked me. And who can't like the Vaike? People with problems, that's who."

Rather than correct him, she took a deep breath and gave a smile at him that was nearly as fake as his initial one had been. "Okay, but now he's gone, so let's not talk about my friend like that, shall we?" He meekly nodded, something she didn't expect, and that gave her more confidence in that whatever she said, he would listen to. "So, what's the plan? Lunch, right?"

"Oh yeah, been setting this up for like an hour now. Kicked all the other teachers out of the lounge for this one." While he gave himself a pat on the back for his set-up skills, she began to regret ever wanting to do this (even though the question of how he knew she was willing to do this did cross her mind), and they sort of stayed in their positions for a few minutes before he realized that there wasn't much in the way of a lunch happening if they were still in her office. "Come with me, m'lady," he said, offering her his hand to get her out of her chair, and she accepted the offer, if only to make him feel like his politeness was being properly executed. "Today, we dine like royalty. Or something like that."

The teachers' lounge was one of those places that she had known the way to long before she really should have, thanks to always having had a sibling in charge of the school while she had gone there, but there was something oddly endearing about being led there by a guy who didn't seem to shut up about himself. In fact, she was sure that if he didn't still have a decent grip on her hand, he would have completely forgotten that she was there—that was, until they got to the lounge and he opened the door, showing her the results of his "setting up;" if the bouquet of flowers had been nice, then what he had turned the hang-out place for the teachers was simply amazing.

There were more flowers sitting in the middle of one of the tables, an even more elaborate arrangement than the one she had been given the week before, and sitting in the shadows of the beautiful flowers were two plates, covered with folded napkins that were shaped like cloth roses. "It's kinda fancy, but only the best for you." Vaike let go of Lissa's hand after he walked her to the table, and he pulled her chair out for her so that she could be seated. "Gotta make a good impression on ya, or else you might just shun ol' Vaike after this, and that's not the goal here."

"What exactly is the goal, then?" she asked, looking at the folded napkin before her. "This doesn't seem like just a lunch. It seems like some sort of date. And while that's cool and all, I wouldn't have agreed to come if I knew that's what it was. You know how Chrom feels about me being around you."

"And that's why this is how it is! That brother of yours came to me, and he was like, 'listen here Vaike, don't get attached to my sister or I'll kill ya,' but he was also like, 'if you can impress her, maybe I'll let ya talk to her more,' and that chance is tempting. When we got to actually meet that first time, when you talked to me, it was like sunshine was enterin' my life. And I kinda dug that, but what could I do? Chrom didn't want me around ya, not until I started actin' like a decent fella." As he was talking, Vaike was pulling out different containers from the lounge fridge, setting them on one of the counters until he had everything that he wanted. "Then he came to me, just the other day, and said he'd let me give it a shot, just 'cause you were so smitten with those flowers."

"They were nice flowers…" Lissa wasn't really sure how to react, although she was a bit surprised that of all the people to let Vaike know that she was okay with having a lunch with him, it was her overprotective brother who did the honors. "And this is really well thought out, I must say. It's kind of like you really wanted to impress me."

He chuckled, and she was sure he was beaming as he did. "That was the plan, yeah. Glad that it worked out for the better. Would be broken if you weren't at least a li'l impressed that this rough guy had this soft side to 'im."

"That's not the most impressive part of all this." Kicking her feet around, as she wasn't exactly tall enough for them to reach the ground from the chair she was in, Lissa tried to figure out what could be considered most impressive. The décor was nice, but just the fact that Vaike had put so much time into making sure she'd be happy with what he had done resonated strongest within her. "You doing this impresses me enough, though. I figured you were just going to make me sandwiches or something and sit in my office and call it a lunch. I wasn't expecting anything of this sort, and I kind of really like it."

"Aw, don't make a man blush like this," he replied, bringing to the table a dish that he had prepared for the occasion, and when he got beside her she could see that his face had indeed picked up a bit of a red tint to it. "Last we need is for someone to walk in and think we're datin' or something like that. Just lunch, just friends, yeah?"

She went to nod in agreement, but then she caught sight of what he had made for her, and everything felt like it had fallen apart. "Er, yeah, that sounds about right," she managed to say, before looking down at her plate and not at him. "So maybe we should hurry with eating and get out of here before someone does walk in."

"What's drained your pep all quickly? Come on, the Vaike made sure he didn't play ball with the students today just to make sure he'd be ready for this." He set the dish down next to her before seating himself in the chair across from her. "Something I said? Is that it?"

"No, don't worry, it's nothing about you! It's just that, did you actually make that yourself?" Her voice was softer than usual, as she let her eyes track towards looking at what was to be their meal. "Because if you did…wow."

He took a sharp breath in. "I, yeah, that was all my cookin'," he said, exhaling slowly. "Why, does it look bad? Should we move to sandwiches instead, like you suggested?"

"No way! That's about the prettiest, er, baked something edible I've ever seen?" While she wasn't actually sure what it was, Lissa did know that it looked a lot better than most of the things she made on her cooking nights, and it made her feel a little awkward that this athletic guy was a better cook that she was. But he seemed to take her hesitant and unsure naming of his meal in stride, as he didn't seem to be stressed out about her not knowing what it was. "Where'd you learn to cook like that?"

"Now, now, don't ask questions like that 'til you actually eat the stuff. Don't want you thinkin' it's better than it is until you've tried it." He scratched at his head for a moment as he watched her throw caution to the wind and take some of his concoction out of its dish and put it on her plate, but he dropped his hand down to cover his mouth in suspense as she took her first bite. The wide-eyed and surprised look on her face as she realized how truly delicious it was made him almost tear up. "There, now's it as good as you were saying?"

"It's amazing! You've got to tell me how you learned to make this!" Making sure she had swallowed before she spoke, Lissa got out her two sentences before she took another bite, much to Vaike's delight. He grabbed himself some food then, allowing her to eat without worrying about making idle conversation, hoping that when they were done they could move on past where and how he had learned to make the food before them. There was no such luck, sadly, because once she had finished with what she had gotten for herself she pushed her plate aside and propped her elbows on the table, her head in her hands. "Now tell me, please! I'm sure Chrom would love it if I'd make this for him sometime!"

"Eh, doesn't seem like his sort of food. Isn't really the type of food I like either, but it's easy and fun to make. Plus it's hard to mess it up, and there's always time for a game of ball when it's cooking." Not worried as much with the politeness factor, Vaike may have been talking with his mouth full, but he figured that Lissa wasn't able to see it. "Maybe Teach can teach you sometime, yeah?"

"I think I'd like that," she replied, giggling as she spoke. "You're not nearly as bad as my brother had made me think you were, you know. You're actually a lot more kind and polite and not as big of a bonehead as he liked making you seem."

"'s cool to hear. Next time we do this, maybe then ol' Vaike won't spend half his paycheck getting everything perfect." Although he did laugh after saying that, Lissa figured there was some truth to that statement, and it made her feel slightly guilty for this guy doing so much to please her (and to make her brother approve of them even interacting). "Wait, there is gonna be a next time, isn't there?"

She thought for a split second before answering, knowing that whatever she said, there was no going back: "Of course there is! You've got to teach me to cook like you can, after all!"

"Those words are like the sound of feet across a basketball court. I love hearing it." Would there have been more to his train of thought? Possibly. But that was when the little lunch was cut short by someone opening the door to the lounge and turning the dimmed lighting back to its normally bright status, startling them both. The teacher who had walked in, one of the elder instructors at the school, was not exactly pleased with the fact that a private almost-date had been going on in a public place.

Neither was Chrom, once he found out that that's where Vaike had staged the entire thing. But by that point, later that day, it was too late for him to have any chance of talking Lissa out of meeting with the guy again. She wasn't exactly sure what their relationship was, but she definitely knew she liked him, but to what extent?

* * *

For every day with something for Lissa to do that was actually part of her job description, there were entire weeks of her just sitting around and doing nothing in the way of helping the student body with their ailments. That was why her office was constantly being rearranged, and that was also why whenever someone who wasn't Ricken, Vaike, or Chrom came in to visit her, she was more than eager to help them out. It was a break from the monotony of her same three visitors, and it was always nice to get to talk with other people when they needed painkillers or somewhere to lay down for a minute to just relax.

But there was always the chance that something could go terribly wrong and her office would become the scene of someone nearly dying, and that was not a chance she ever wanted to think about. It did cross her mind sometimes when she'd see Vaike walking through the halls and her memories went back to the day she had met him, when Chrom had mentioned how he had acquired a bad track record of injuries inflicted upon his students during his time as a student teacher. It also crossed her mind whenever Chrom would poke his head into the office looking slightly frantic, because what could make him panic more than someone at the school almost dying? It wasn't ever that, and usually was him coming to let her know that he had to leave for the day to go home for whatever reason, but the fact that it could have been a disaster remained every time.

No amount of mental preparation could actually ready her for the moment when she had to take care of someone who was truly hurt, though. Adding on to that, she definitely wasn't prepared when her now-somewhat-good friend Vaike was the one carrying the bloodied person into the office, with her definitely-good friend Ricken tagging along for some reason. And when she saw who the unlucky soul who had gotten hit squarely in the face with a volleyball was, she cringed a little, because his identity explained why Ricken was there: it was one of the few other students that Lissa considered herself close to, a poor boy named Donnel who never seemed to be in the right place. "Okay, who hit the ball hard enough at him to _break his nose_?" she asked, once she gained enough composure to do so. "One of you better answer me."

Vaike seemed to ignore the question entirely, but Ricken wasn't going to let the answer go unsaid. "It was Coach Vaike," he shakily replied, trying not to look at his teacher as he accused him of the act. "We were playing in class, and the other team was short a person, so he stepped in. And forgot that maybe some of us aren't actually good at sports."

"It was a beautiful serve and Donny there just wasn't payin' attention. Not my fault." Washing blood off of his arms, Vaike looked to Lissa with a bit of a sorry expression on his face. "You ain't gonna tell Chrom about this, are you?"

"I sort of have to, you know. One of his students is injured—not too terribly so, but I know his mom is going to flip out when she sees her son's face later. But I'm sure Chrom expected this of you, after what he told me you allowed before this." Trying to remain as professional as she could, Lissa shook her head at Vaike. "You're awful at being nice to your students, aren't you?"

"Not even a li'l bit! What makes you say that?" He motioned towards the somewhat bloody mess of a boy sitting on the table, as well as the one next to him, who was glaring back at his teacher. "Those two? They ain't athletes, Lissa! Even a good teacher like the Vaike can't change that fact!"

Ricken's glare got more intense, and some hidden rage from inside of him boiled out after that comment. "No, he's so mean to all of us! Even the guys who are good at sports get bullied by this guy just because he thinks he's better than everyone! He did this to Donny on purpose, I'm telling you!"

"Purpose?" Lissa raised her eyebrows. "Vaike, is he telling the truth?"

"No way! Rule number one of my job, don't ever hurt the kids on purpose! 's on the wall in the locker rooms for a reason!" Now turning to actually look at the damage he'd caused, Vaike frowned a little. "Can't believe this kid's trying to convince you I did this to come see ya or something."

"He never said that, actually…" Letting her face go back to its resting position, Lissa really hoped that she hadn't just gotten Vaike to admit to something she didn't want to hear. "He just said that you did it on purpose. I wasn't mentioned at all."

"Okay, and? He's tryin' to make me look like I'm some lovesick fool, and lemme tell ya, the Vaike does not get lovesick." It was digging an already deep hole deeper, and she wasn't sure if he was aware that was what he was doing as he continued. "It was just one 'a those accidents that happens sometimes. Tell your brother that I won't play so rough with the boys next time, and that's the end of it."

"I think you should go tell him that yourself," she snapped, putting her hands on the side of her head as she tried to process what was going on. "I-I think I need to talk to these boys on my own. Without you here fighting their claims."

Raising a finger to show he wanted to say something, Vaike finally caught on to the tone Lissa had taken with him and he sighed. "Y'know, you're right. I'll go tell him myself. You, uh, don't take what those boys say too much to heart, 'kay?" Her only response was to point at the door, telling him to go, and he obliged, sighing again as he looked back at her before shutting the door on the office and who remained within it.

"Now that he's out of the way, Ricken, please tell me what happened. No lying to protect him or me or anyone. I need the honest truth." She couldn't even find it in herself to look at her friend as he gave his testimony, in case he said something that would prove that Vaike had caused a student injury just for an excuse to go visit her. That meant it was easiest for her to just cover her eyes and shake her head to let everything sink in as she heard the story from the only witness who hadn't been beamed in the head with a volleyball.

"It really was an accident, at least, that's what it looked like. Yeah, Coach Vaike is a jerk to all of us in that class, but he wouldn't intentionally hurt any of us, especially not this bad, and he definitely wouldn't do it to come see you." As he had spoken, Ricken had been tapping his fingers on his leg, trying to distract himself from something, and Lissa caught onto the noise of his fingers along his pants, asking him what was causing him to do that. "I just don't know, Lissa! The fact that I have to tell you a teacher didn't hurt a student just to come see you is kind of really weird to me!"

"It's weird to me too, but the way he was talking…I just had to make sure." She gave a drawn-out sigh that lasted several seconds, trying to clear her mind as she did. "I shouldn't have ever accepted his offer for lunch. If I hadn't done that, he wouldn't have gotten closer to me, and if that hadn't happened, then maybe this wouldn't have happened!" For the first time in a long time, Lissa regretted doing something that Chrom had suggested she didn't, even though she knew that he had equal hand in setting that whole lunch thing up. "I mean, I shouldn't blame myself for him being a bonehead, but there's a student with a broken nose sitting in here, and I'm pretty sure that's because of me!"

"It's not because of you!" Ricken, going against most logic in the situation, stood before Lissa and put his hands on her shoulders, shaking her back and forth a few times trying to snap her out of her self-blaming stupor. "It's because he likes being rough with us boys, that's all! If I'm wrong so be it, but I know I'm right!"

From where he sat on the table, Donny gave a small mumble that wasn't able to be heard, but at least it showed that he was aware of what was going on, and soon after that he was sitting up on his own, trying to figure out what the damage to his face was. Once he was trying to touch his nose to see where it had been bent weird, the heated conversation between two close friends had to draw to a close, because Lissa had to start coming up with some solution to the medical problem at hand. It wasn't easy, and it definitely wasn't fun to have to bandage up the face of someone she knew fairly well, but she managed to do it somehow, even if by the time it was over all she wanted to do was ring Vaike's neck for letting it happen in the first place.

At least she hadn't needed to call for help, she thought, after the ordeal was over and her office was student-free once more. She had to spend some time scrubbing blood off of places she wasn't even aware it had gotten, but the worst part of the day was over and done, and there was no going back to it—until Chrom came bursting into the office towards the end of the day, locking the door behind him as it shut him and his sister in there for a serious discussion. "Lissa, we have to talk about what happened today," he started, sitting down in the chair that Ricken usually used at lunch. "As in, why I had my stubborn gym teacher coming to me explaining a student's injuries, not my trained medical person."

"Because I think he needed to be the one who told you what he did," she replied, not missing a beat. "And I needed to get some information about the incident out of one of the students who came in here for it."

"There were multiple injuries?" Chrom looked very concerned as he asked the question. "I was not informed of that."

"No, not multiple injuries. A student accompanied the hurt one, that's all." She hoped he wasn't going to ask which student in particular, and she was thankful when he seemed to move past that part and instead asked about what the information she needed was. "Well, er, Vaike mentioned the motive of the act possibly being to come see me, and I just had to make sure that wasn't the case."

His hands balling into fists, Chrom slammed one down onto the closest hard surface he could find in anger. "I knew it! He thinks he should be allowed to talk to you, but then he goes to such lengths as to hurt students to get to do it? I'll have him fired by the end of the day." He stood up and made way for the door, but Lissa, being smaller and faster than her brother, was able to jump up and wedge herself between him and the door before he had the chance to open it. "This isn't the time for you getting protective, Lissa. It was wrong of me to ever let him teach here, and now I have to fix what I did wrong."

"He didn't throw the ball at Donny on purpose! And even if he did, to maybe get the boy to pay attention, it wasn't with the goal of getting to come see me! He knows he is welcome to come on by here and talk to me whenever, and he doesn't need to disrupt one of his classes to do it!" Lissa was starting to get as angry as her brother was, except her anger was directed at him and not at past mistakes. Her body was shaking, trembling in front of that door, and she hoped her raw passion was enough to get Chrom to rethink his hasty decision. "Come on, big brother, you can't just fire your friend because he might have done something to get to see me, even though that wasn't the reason!"

"You're getting awfully protective of him, don't you think?" Giving a hollow laugh that seemed to lessen the anger in his body, Chrom stepped back from the door a little bit. "Is there something you need to tell me about your relationship with him?"

She shook her head. "Nothing that you didn't already know. I just don't want him losing his job over some stupid misunderstanding. He's a really cool guy, once you get past his gloating and his weird way of sometimes referring to himself in the third person. And he wouldn't intentionally hurt a student, not for any reason."

"Because that's the first rule of teaching gym class. Yes, yes, he told me that." Another laugh, less hollow and more sincere. "You just keep in mind that rumors are going to spread about this incident, especially if he does keep his job here. Are you ready to deal with that?"

"What kind of rumors? That there's something going on between me and him? Please, as if anyone actually cares enough about me to start that sort of thing." She allowed herself to break out into a grin at that. "And if they did, I'm sure the students who know me from last school year would totally set them straight. I'm above that sort of relationship, trust me."

He gave her a small nod. "I believe you. But if that changes, you let me know first. As your older brother, as well as your boss, I deserve to have that knowledge before anyone else."

"Got it. As if anything's actually going to happen between me and Vaike, though." The second part had been said underneath her breath, her not wanting Chrom to actually hear it, but as she said it, the smallest of smiles perked up at the edges of his mouth, showing that he had caught what she said, and that he didn't believe a word of it.

How far things had come from when he had simply told her to stay away from that man.

* * *

In the blink of an eye, the end of the semester had come upon everyone, and the staff at the school had decided to hold some sort of celebration marking the occasion. Was it necessary to gather everyone who was interested for a night of dancing and revelry simply because half of the school year was over? Probably not, but there was enough interest to allow for it to happen, and so the night of the last day of finals for the students, the school was lit up with teachers and staff partying as long as they could manage.

There were secondary reasons for this celebration to be happening, as everyone was well aware, but depending on who was asked, what those reasons were was different. If it were Chrom who was asked, he'd first say that it was for the end of the semester, but then he'd pull the asker in close and say that he was also using it as a way to have a celebration for his wife (finally) graduating college with a good number of their friends around. If it were Vaike who was asked, he'd claim that it was all an early birthday celebration for him, sans presents, as his birthday was the day after Christmas and no one really ever remembered it. If it were Lissa, she'd shrug and say to ask someone else, because she was only there because her brother forced her into coming, since she had wanted to just stay home on babysitting duty, but because of his ulterior motives for the night, she was instead in charge of watching Lucina at the party.

Were there other people who had their own reasons for the night being how it was? Of course there were, and it seemed that almost everyone there had at least one reason, be it to just get out with their significant other, or to get the chance to let loose and brag to their colleagues about something. And overall, it seemed like almost no one was there just because it was the end of the semester.

"Look at all these people, Lucy. Just look at them." Lissa, holding her niece in her lap as she sat in a chair away from the action of the party, wanted to make her night at least a bit fun, and if that meant showing her niece all of the people in the room, that's what it was going to be. "They're all here to show off to one another. Who's getting married over break, who's going on vacation, this, that, everything. It's so silly." The little girl laughed, playfully reaching out towards the people who were much too far away for her to grab. "Yeah, that's right, you try to grab them and talk sense into them."

"Talking? Do you mean she actually _said_ something?" Catching his sister by surprise, Chrom very nearly had his daughter thrown at him as he spoke. "Er, did I interrupt you from your evening activities?"

"No, not at all! I was just caught up in trying to see what everyone was doing, that's all." Resituating herself and Lucina after that scare, Lissa looked to Chrom and scrunched her face at him. "Didn't you say you were going to dress up for the occasion? After all, you've insisted that this is some undercover celebration for Robin, and I'm sure she's going to look gorgeous whenever she gets here."

"'Whenever' is the key word there. I think she's caught on to the fact that this isn't about her after all, and she's angry about that. How was I supposed to know she'd want an actual party to celebrate her graduation? This is basically the same thing." Chrom looked down at what he was wearing, which was his usual work attire consisting of some nice pants and a collared shirt, before shrugging it off. "And I am dressed up. Have you seen what some of the others are wearing? Like you, for instance?"

That caused Lissa to look down at herself, and she too was wearing what she tended to wear to work; in fact, she hadn't even bothered changing out of what she had worn to work that day, and therefore she was still in one of her many fake-corseted dresses. "I'm at least nicer looking than you are, and all I'm doing tonight is making sure your daughter doesn't get in trouble. Which I know is easier said than done, but still!"

"Hey, she'll behave for you since she knows you. Just don't let anyone she doesn't know get too close to her, or it might get ugly." He reached for Lucina to grab her and give her a quick round of kisses before handing her back to her aunt, and after that he gave them a small wave. "I'll go see what everyone's up to and see how many people tell me their plans for break. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to sneak past the ones that could talk my ear off all night."

"Have fun with that," she said, waving back at him until he wasn't paying attention any longer, and once he was out of earshot she sighed. "Great. Going to be sitting here for hours with only a baby who doesn't even talk as my only companion. As if this night couldn't get any better for me."

"Lissa, dear? Is that you?" The voice wasn't one that she was expecting to hear, and when she saw that it did indeed belong to the person she thought it did, she smiled a bit at Maribelle, who was taking off some ornate gloves as she sat in the chair next to Lissa's. "Oh, it looks like there is someone here that I know after all! This should make this disastrous night go over so much better!"

"Disastrous? You're going to have to explain yourself on that one. As well as how you got in here in the first place. This is for staff and their companions, not people who simply attended the school!" Nudging her friend in the arm a bit, Lissa couldn't help but speculate a little bit as to how Maribelle had gotten in. "Let me guess, you badgered a certain someone long enough to convince him to bring you as his date?"

"Right on target. But how was I supposed to know that all Frederick ever talks about anymore is what he's teaching his classes? I was unaware he had changed so much from back when we used to spy on him when he and your brother would go down to the pool!" Maribelle shook her head, her light ringlets bouncing every which way. "This was a terrible mistake, and I am so thankful that you're here to share in my misery!"

"Uh, yeah, sharing in your misery. That's what I'm here for." Lissa pointed at Lucina for a second, just to remind her friend that there was clearly some other reason she was there, but all the newcomer saw was the almost angry facial expression on the little girl. "I'm just watching Lucy for Chrom and Robin so that they can have some fun tonight. But Chrom wanted me to at least come out so that's why I'm here. And I bet if he comes over to check on her and you're here, he's going to kick you out."

A gasp escaped Maribelle's lips, faster than she could cover her mouth in shock. "He would never! You and I have been friends since we were infants, and he would be okay with bending rules to allow me to stay. Especially since I technically am here as the date for his best friend, no matter how bad of an idea that was. Do you think your brother would really kick me out in that case?"

"Yeah, pretty sure he would. That, or he'd force you to spend the evening actually with your date, and that might just be worse than getting kicked out." Lissa's eyes darted around the room to see where Chrom had gone off to in the minute or two since he had left talking to her, and he saw that he had been cornered by Frederick and was probably getting told the exact sort of things that had driven Maribelle from wanting to be around him. "Look, it seems your date has found someone else he could talk to. I don't think he'll miss you much."

"Which is a shame, because this sort of event has been something I've been dreaming of attending with him since I first met him." Giving a fake sniffle, Maribelle acted hurt for just a second, before perking back up. "Oh well, many other fish in the sea. Maybe now that my heart doesn't ache for him, I'll pick up a rich boy while away at school!"

"That's the spirit!" As she continued looking around the room, Lissa saw the only person who could have been present that would make her rethink the "babysitting" part of the evening, and it was then that she really wished she had someone she could dump Lucina off onto for just a few minutes. "Uh, Maribelle, want to do me a quick favor?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the person of interest, even when her friend responded positively. "Watch Lucy for me while I go talk to someone, okay?"

"As long as you remember to come back for her, sure thing." After the quick change of which lap Lucina was sitting on was completed, Lissa got up and headed over towards the person who had caught her attention, leaving Maribelle holding a child that definitely did not look pleased to be being held by someone she didn't know.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting to see you here tonight. Didn't peg you as the party kind of guy." Sidling up against the wall next to him, Lissa tried to make herself seem as natural as possible as she struck up conversation. "What's your reason for being here tonight, Vaike? And don't tell me that birthday thing. I already heard that one."

He didn't respond at first, still turned so that his back was to her, and she sighed, wondering if there was even a reason to try again. But then he turned around, holding in his hands a single rose that reminded Lissa much of the ones that had been made out of napkins back at that first lunch. "If we're gonna ignore the Vaike's birthday, then at least can he say that he came in hopes that he'd see you?"

"See me? Really?" Her eyes widened as he nodded and pushed the rose towards her, not satisfied until she held the flower in her hands. "Why thank you. That's actually kind of a surprise to me."

"It wouldn't be a surprise to anyone else if we asked 'em. Apparently everyone in the school knows that if this guy's got a weakness, it's that pretty little medicine girl who hides in her office all day." The expression on Vaike's face, complete with squinted eyes and toothy grin, told her that he was speaking the truth. "So, er, yeah. Came here tonight to see you, and here you are."

Hearing him say that made her really wish she had come on her own terms, not on ones her brother had put into place, because she would have loved to have gotten to spend more time with him than just their short exchange. However, she knew that every second she left her niece in Maribelle's care, it was another second closer to that child having a total meltdown and ruining the night for everyone. "Well I'm really glad that you came here for me, but I'm kind of, well, supposed to be doing something that isn't talking it up with someone."

"I get'cha. You go on and do what you gotta do, the Vaike'll survive." His grin shrunk immediately, and he seemed crestfallen at the prospect that what little conversation they had just had being the end of their talking for the night. "See ya next semester, yeah?"

She nodded, looking him straight in the eyes once her head was back to its normal position. "Of course. I'll still be here, 'locked' in my office, waiting to take care of whatever students you accidentally injure." He gave her a pat on the shoulder for that, but that was the end of their interaction, because she could just hear the beginnings of loud crying coming from where she was supposed to be—and if she had returned back to her seat even a moment later, there definitely would have been crying. There also wouldn't have been enough time to get Lucina back on the right lap before the only other person meant to be there that night who knew the child would come walking up.

"So, let me get this straight, Chrom thought it would be acceptable to combine my grad party with your work one?" It was literally no time at all after Lissa was back in her seat holding Lucina when Robin asked that, not noticing the flower that was presently being held by her child. "And he doesn't see a problem with this at all?"

"That sounds about right," was the reply, and Lissa was thankful that all she was getting asked about was the celebration thing, and not why her cheeks were probably a bit more colored than usual, or even where the rose came from. "He's not exactly the best when it comes to having good ideas, you know. I mean, isn't that why you two have a kid?"

Robin gave Lissa a look that was clearly unamused. "We aren't having that discussion right now, not here," she started, before throwing her hands up in a bit of exasperation. "But really? He thinks this is okay? I don't know these people yet! The only ones I do know are not the kind of people I want to be celebrating with! Is he _mad_ or something?"

"I would probably go with the second option there. We all know that there's definitely a few screws loose in that head of his." Again, Lissa made a motion towards the child she was holding, yet another dig at the fact that she existed, and that was enough to get Robin to walk off, not wanting to deal with that on a night that should have been about her. "And that's how I take care of that," she triumphantly announced, looking at Maribelle who had just idly sat by for that conversation. "Now Robin's off my back and squarely on Chrom's, as it should be."

"Yes, and while that is interesting on its own, I must say, I never saw you as one to go for the older gentlemen," Maribelle commented, taking the opportunity to return the favor to her friend on the nudging. "Was that man you were speaking with the one who brought you that lovely bouquet back when I visited?"

Lissa thought for a second about lying to keep Maribelle from making any more comments on that topic, but she ultimately decided against it. "That would be the guy, yeah. Vaike. He's a really cool guy, even if he's a bit weird and a bit much to handle sometimes."

"You speak like you don't really know him, and that's not good! He gave you that gift months ago, haven't you at least treated him to what he wanted in exchange for it? A lunch date, correct?" Leaning in closer to wait for the answer, Maribelle didn't expect to get hit in the face by the child in Lissa's lap before she heard anything else.

The delay in a response was simply because Lissa wasn't sure how she could tell the truth in a way that would be exciting enough to warrant telling it at all. Yes, there had been that lunch "date," if it could even classify as such, and there had been several other lunches they had spent together in her office, but that had been it. Did they get to know each other a bit better through those meals? Yes, but at the same time, they could barely be considered friends in her mind, even though based on the fact that he had brought her a flower for the evening, their relationship must have had more to it in Vaike's mind (and if what he said about what the school's collective opinion was, it wasn't just in his mind). "We did have that lunch, and it was really nice. He made something delicious and told me he'd teach me to make it myself someday, even though that hasn't happened yet. But it's not like we're anything more than maybe friends, trust me. I don't know how my brother would handle that if it were the case."

"Oh, phooey on whatever Chrom thinks! You should worry about what you want, not what your brother wants for you!" Maribelle sat back up, having been hit in the face again after mentioning the name of Lucina's dad. "And if you want to align yourself romantically with that man, I say you go right on ahead and do it!"

"I'd agree with you, but I don't know if that's what I want." Lissa sighed, getting ready to bare her heart to her friend. "I've never actually liked any guys, mostly because any time I'd start to, my brother would swoop in and tell me not to do it. But with Vaike, he did tell me that, and then he retracted that statement when he saw how much of a gentlemen he was being for me. Does that mean I should go for it? Should I wait? I've known the guy since the end of summer, is that even too soon to make a decision like that?"

"I say you should follow your heart. Ignore me, ignore your brother, ignore everyone but you and what you want." That was the type of assistance that was to be expected from Maribelle, who never quite wanted to get her hands dirtied in a situation. "If everything fails in the end, at least you can say that you had the experience."

"You know what? I think you're right." Standing up and depositing Lucina back onto Maribelle's lap, Lissa walked back over to where Vaike was still lounging against the wall, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. When he looked and saw that she had came back, his face lit up into that giant grin once more. "Hi there, again, even though I said I wouldn't be able to really talk."

"No one can get enough of the Vaike," he replied, laughing as he did. "But what brings you over this time? Want to admire my muscles? Hear one of my stories? Maybe you came to sneak off and explore parts of the school you've only heard rumors about, like the men's locker room. I don't judge you for wanting any of that."

She stifled a giggle at some of those suggestions, feeling much like a younger girl encountering her first crush would. "No, it's not anything like that. Vaike, I know you really like me. You've made it super obvious. And maybe, just maybe, we should do something about that."

"You mean like tell me to stop? No one's really ever done that to ol' Vaike, but if that's how you wanna be, then I guess I can—"

"No! Vaike, I'm saying, we should do something good about it. Like maybe try out an actual relationship between us?" She had no idea where the confidence to sort of ask him out came from, but the words glided off her tongue and into the air with more ease than almost anything she had said before in her life. His reaction was priceless, to go from that grin to an almost stoic, straight-line-lipped look, before grinning again and jumping around a bit as he eagerly accepted her suggestion.

The part that caught her most off-guard was when he picked her up, swung her around in a circle a few times, and pulled her in for what she knew was the first kiss she'd ever had. And it was in front of everyone she worked with, as well as her completely shocked brother. If there had been any reaction to watch more than Vaike's, it would have to have been Chrom's, as he went from trying to figure out what was going on to realizing exactly what it was, and then to having to mask a layer of almost rage that overcame him when he saw his little sister being kissed by a guy older than he was.

The ride home after that party was not a fun one for any person involved. One person was angry that her achievements in her education had been pre-empted for some work party. One was upset that he had been witness to the beginning of his sister's relationship with someone he didn't really want her involved with. One was feeling guilt for having let things escalate the way they had in the short time span that they had. And the last was just not a fan of car rides in general, the emotions the adults in the car were expressing not affecting her evening in the slightest.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for all the reviews/favorites/follows from the first chapter! I hope this second one lived up to the expectations that had been set!**

 **Also, there most likely won't be an update next week because I will be out of town on vacation! If I do find a way to post chapter 3, I will!**


	3. Love, Possibly

For the duration of the school break that followed, there was a lot of hard feelings passed around at the house, all due to what had transpired at the party. But after the initial couple of days of absolute animosity aimed at Chrom from Robin, or aimed at Lissa from Chrom, everything settled down a little bit, at least to the point where everyone could be in the same room and there wouldn't be any sort of rude comments made. It was just when not everyone was in the room that things would be said, and while some of the things were justifiable (like if it were the married couple there, they'd fight about if repurposing that party was an acceptable act or not), some were definitely not.

But for every time that Chrom started trying to police his sister on her questionable decision to get with some guy that he didn't want her with, there was a time that she'd get back on him for some of the bad decisions he'd made in his life. "I just don't want you to regret what you're doing to yourself," he started with this particular time, hoping that she was listening to him and taking his advice to heart. "I understand that you think he's charming, but you don't know Vaike like I do."

"You're right, I don't." It was her reply that she liked using whenever he'd say that second part, mostly because she'd get to see Chrom's chest puff up a bit in pride for getting her to listen. "Because I think I know him better than you do. You seem to think all there is to him is his boneheaded nature. But there's not. There's so much more."

Deflating back to his normal stance, he put his hand on his forehead and slid it down his face. "No, there's really not much more to him than that. The guy's not very bright, and if it weren't for the fact that he's an old friend, he would not be teaching at that school. I don't want you getting hurt by him, Lissa, and I want you to really rethink your decision to be with him before you see him again."

"I'm not rethinking anything, because this is the first time in my life I've ever really wanted to do something like this! It's just a harmless dating thing, don't worry." Putting on the best innocent smile she could, Lissa looked straight at her brother as she delivered her next line: "Unlike you, who hooked up with, married, and had a kid with a girl within like two years when you could have been doing better things."

"Why do you always turn this back on me and my decisions? Just because I made some poor decisions in the time right after Emmeryn died doesn't mean that you're allowed to do the same now." Chrom did the thing with his hand and his face again, showing Lissa that he wasn't very pleased at all with what she had just said. "What I did all worked out for the best, though. Unlike what will happen if you actually go through with dating Vaike."

"I don't think I'm going to get as desperate as you did, honestly." She coughed a couple of times to prepare herself for some mimicking, and then she let loose with her best impression of what her brother had done. "You were like, 'Lissa, I met this girl at school. Yeah, I know I'm like nineteen, but it's for the best.' And then like a week later, you were like 'that girl I met? Yeah, I think I'm gonna marry her,' and you _did_ like within six months of that. And then," she took in a deep breath to prepare herself, taking her pause to see that one of Chrom's eyes was starting to twitch at what she was doing, "then it was the following summer, she was still going to school and you had dropped out to take on the job Emmeryn left behind, and you guys thought it was a smart idea to make a baby! You were like, 'this is such a good idea! Kids are great! Having a kid is going to be great!' but then Lucina actually happened and you both regretted it so, so badly."

"Are you really taking this time to make fun of me?" he asked once she was done, his eye still twitching. "Because it's not funny."

She put her innocent smile back on. "Of course not, big brother! I'm just reminding you that I know what you did that was wrong, and I know I'm not going to make those mistakes. I've had the time to learn by watching you struggle through life."

"Er, that's not what you were making it sound like, but if you're using my past mistakes as guidelines for what you shouldn't do, maybe then I'm being a bit too harsh on you about this situation." He had to take a few moments to calm himself down, but once he wasn't visibly angry anymore, Chrom actually gave a smile at his sister. "Just make sure to promise me that you really won't make the mistakes I did."

"Of course I wouldn't! I'm going to wait until I'm at least your age now before I get married and start having kids." Lissa put her fingers to her cheeks and pushed the corners of her mouth up a bit in the silliest smile she could manage. "And besides, that probably isn't going to be with the first guy I liked. So there's nothing to worry about with me dating him, I promise!"

"All right, you win on that one. I'm still not happy that of all the single guys at the school, you're attaching yourself to Vaike, but you seem to have more of an idea as to what's going to happen than I did at your age." Chrom reached out and put a supporting hand on his sister's shoulder. "But really, keep to your word. I don't want you to go through some of the struggles we did."

Copying him, she put one of her hands on his shoulder, although their height difference made it a bit hard for her to reach. "You got it. Promise." Would she have added more to that had she gotten the chance? Most likely. But the biggest of the "struggles" that kept being referred to decided that right then would be the best time for coming barreling into the room, screaming the whole way, with her mother following not far behind.

Even though Lucina was still running and screaming, Robin stopped in her tracks when she saw the brother and sister actually being civil with one another. "Did something happen that made you two get along?" she asked, looking between them. "Or are you just pretending to not scare the little one into thinking something's wrong?"

"Something happened, if you can call it that," Chrom replied with a laugh, "and I think you'd be amused to hear that it involved Lissa managing to use her favorite rebuttal to get me to see things her way."

"Did she now?" That put Robin's attention solely on Lissa, who shrank back a little. Sassing off to Chrom was one thing, because he wasn't that scary to go toe-to-toe with in an argument in the end. But having to explain said sassing off to his wife? She wasn't even sure she could get past the part where she called Lucina a problem. "Do I want to actually hear it, or should I just take your word for it?"

The almost scared look that had appeared on Lissa's face helped Chrom make his decision. "Take my word for it. It's not anything we want to repeat with small ears in the room, at any rate. Last thing we need is for Lucina's first word to be something that was said negatively about her."

"Oh, it's one of _those_ rebuttals. You finally let her get one off on you." Robin held back laughter as she shook her head. "Hopefully now she'll come up with something new to use against us whenever she's got a problem, hm?"

"I'll try, maybe. It's hard when it's just so easy to rub it in that you two have made some serious mistakes, even if it all ended up okay." Scared no longer, Lissa let go of her brother and took the opportunity to playfully punch Robin in the arm. "I only used the stuff about your relationship to make him realize that I wouldn't make the same mistakes, I swear. Like I told him, I don't plan on getting married and having kids until I'm his age, at least."

"Pretty sure that was our plan too, you know, to wait until we were older and not still in school and fumbling through everything to have a kid. But, hey, things happened." Punching her sister-in-law back harder than she had been punched, Robin let a couple seconds of laughter loose, before her leg was attacked by a small child who was still very much screaming. "And I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. Except maybe one or two things, but…"

"But?" Chrom repeated. "Is there something you wish to tell me, Robin?"

She bent down and plucked the child off of her leg, before pushing her at Chrom. "I don't know, can you look me in the eyes and tell me that everything I sacrificed for this girl is worth it?"

"Of course I can. You know this." Taking Lucina from her mother's hands, he pulled her close into him, hugging her tightly. "You know that I love her as much as I love you, and everything you gave up for her was worth it."

"But if it were you who had to give something up, I'm sure you'd be talking a bit differently. Like, I don't know, if you had to stop going to school for a semester because you had to take care of her or something. But you didn't have to do that." She sounded slightly angry as she spoke, but whatever anger there was within her in regards to that topic was melting away at getting to see her husband and their daughter hugging. "And, uh, I guess I'm not too mad that I had to do that either, really. It all ended up okay, in the end."

"In the end, yes. If we weren't around young ears, I would continue this conversation with you, but you know how it is. Can't let Lucina hear anything that she might use against us if she ever chooses to actually, well, speak." Cue Chrom getting a face full of his daughter's hair, as she headbutted him square in the mouth.

"Aw, she's so cute when she's not being so much of a terror as usual!" Lissa remarked, having stepped back a little bit just to watch the banter between the others and therefore being in perfect position to see what the child was doing to her father. "Almost makes her worth it, doesn't it?"

"We seriously just stopped talking about that, Lissa. Let the topic go." Robin, propping a hand on one of her hips while reaching with the other to try and stop Lucina from hitting her father in the face again, didn't have the patience to have to explain why they couldn't keep discussing that particular topic. She could, however, make at least one comment on the matter before it was done for the time being. "Let's just remember that it was one hundred percent Chrom's idea that we got married, and it was even more his idea for us to have a kid so young."

Lissa couldn't help but laugh at the honesty, and it didn't help that as Robin said that, Lucina had managed to somehow knock Chrom straight in the jaw, catching him by surprise and in a lot of pain. "I think he might regret it a little bit right about now," she said between giggles. "Either that, or he might later when that actually hurts."

After he was done recoiling in pain and resisting the urge to punish the girl for hurting him, all Chrom had to say to his sister was, "No, I don't regret this at all. It wasn't the best idea at the time, but there's no regretting it. But I swear if you make the same mistake I did, you will regret it." She rolled her eyes at his not-so-friendly reminder, but made a big mental note of it. After all, she had promised him like twice that she wasn't going to follow in his footsteps in terms of relationship checkpoints, so did he really need to remind her?

It wasn't like she was even going to see the guy she had sort of asked out again until they were back at work when school resumed.

* * *

The first day of the new semester went a lot like the first day of the overall school year, the only differences being that the assembly they had didn't introduce all the teachers and staff, just any new members, and that there was no video that played telling the students about Emmeryn's wishes for the school. That made the day a bit easier to take in, especially since all of the staff, aside from anyone brand new, got to sit in with the students and didn't have to do much of anything for the assembly. It also meant that, rather than being stared at by students who may have known her, Lissa got to find somewhere in the back row, where she could watch everyone and everything without being looked at. That last part was crucial, as that meant she could sit next to Vaike and not have to worry about her brother catching her.

It completely slipped her mind that her brother would be at the podium talking to everyone for the duration of the assembly, and that because of that, he would easily be able to see what she was doing; this was especially true since she was at the highest point in the room, and him just looking up would amount to him seeing his sister not paying attention to him. If he did notice, he certainly didn't say anything about it, not even when he was introducing the new people that had come aboard the staff, including the school's first full-time substitute teacher (who just so happened to be his wife), and he looked straight up at Lissa and saw where she was sitting. Maybe they were too far back and he wasn't able to tell that the big guy next to her was Vaike, even though he was gigantic compared to the freshmen they were sitting with. Or maybe he really had given up on trying to convince her that the relationship was a bad idea, even though on the ride to school he had given her a long speech about how she needed to be careful and on her toes at all times, lest he take advantage of her.

When she had told Vaike about that, he laughed and made sure to let her know that he wouldn't do anything that she didn't want him to do. "Bein' in love's a lot like bein' on a sports team. Except we get to kiss and there you don't even get to hug a brother unless he's had a bad day," he explained, as he picked Lissa up and twirled her around like he had when she asked him out. "Everyone's got a part and workin' together is the only way things get done. Otherwise, it ain't any good."

That way of putting it had stuck with her throughout the whole assembly and long after, even when she and Vaike had to go their separate ways for the day. She sat herself in her office, shutting the door so that no one would bother her unless they had a problem, and daydreamed the first half of her day away. Never before had she felt like she did when she was with him, and it was an odd feeling for someone who was nearing on nineteen years old, who had never once been in love before that. Was it even love? They had known each other for, what, six months, and had been "dating" for not even a single one. Did it count as dating if they'd never actually been on a date?

This romance thing was a lot harder than she expected it to be, and it was weighing heavily on her mind. That was why, when Ricken came in for lunch like he usually did, it took her by complete surprise. "What are you doing in here?" she asked, after collecting herself from nearly jumping out of her seat. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Uh, yeah, but are you? It's lunch time." Taking his usual spot and pulling out his food, Ricken gave Lissa a concerned look. "I come in here every day."

"I'm fine. Just lost track of time, I guess. Busy as always, you know." When she was lying through her teeth, anyone who knew her could tell, and by the way Ricken's look got only more concerned, she was sure that he was mentally calling her out on her lies. "Or, er, I've just been lost in my thoughts and all that. You know how it is."

"I've known you since I started school here, and I can say I've only ever seen you like this twice before. Once was the one-year anniversary of your sister's death, when I found you sitting in the corner in the commons. The other time was the day your niece was born, and you were just so lost in thoughts of worry about what could go wrong." He relaxed a little bit and started eating, not so concerned anymore. "That was also the day you swore you were going to go to school to become a nurse, because then you'd be able to do stuff to help people like Miss Robin."

"I forgot about that vow, actually," she admitted, after the day in question didn't seem to register with her. "Probably because it came after, well, everything that happened that day, but I totally didn't remember that until you just reminded me."

Ricken nodded, his sandwich hanging out his mouth as he did, and once he swallowed what was in his mouth, he continued to talk. "I remember it well. You were one of my only friends here, and when I saw you so lost in thought while you were sitting in class, I had to ask why. And you didn't answer at first, you just seemed to get even more lost. But when you came back around, you told me what was going on, and you followed it with a vow of becoming a nurse someday so that you could help people, like her."

"Because I'd totally be able to manage seeing my sister-in-law almost dying, of course." Lissa had to giggle at her past self's decision, even though it was well-intentioned. "That was such a terrible day that I'm so glad it ended up okay, even if it ending badly was totally expected."

"She lived through it and so did your niece, and that's what had to matter. Still, that was the last time I saw you this lost in your mind, and now you're doing it again." He paused to take another bite of his sandwich. "Did something happen this morning? It's nothing to do with your family, is it? They looked so happy today at the assembly…"

Lissa shook her head fairly violently, unsure of why Ricken had jumped to that conclusion. "No, of course it's nothing to do with them! I'm sure that, after what happened with Lucina, if they were going to have another kid, my brother would keep Robin locked in the house unless she absolutely had to leave. He still thinks that it was her continuing to go to school while she was pregnant that caused all the problems, and so if she was having another one, she so wouldn't be able to work."

"Got it. But if that's not what's heavy on your mind today, what is?" He wasn't watching her as he asked that, and therefore he missed her holding up a finger telling him to wait for his answer. "Lissa? What is it?"

"Can't you see that I'm telling you to give it a second?" she jokingly asked him, causing him to look at her and see her raised finger, which he then started to look concerned at. "Please stop worrying, will you? It's all going to be answered soon enough, I'm sure."

He popped one of his carrot sticks into his mouth. "Got it, I'll be patient," he replied, mouth full of carrot. "Except I'm not sure what there is that you ca—" That was when the door swung open like it tended to, an arm sticking in holding a single rose, and the sight was enough to make Ricken almost spit out what he was attempting to eat. "—n't tell me? Is that a flower? Lissa, what is going on?"

"Brought a gift for li'l miss Lissa today," Vaike said from his usual place on the other side of the door, and he waved the rose around a bit. "Figured could go classy today, with something small and easy."

She could feel herself blushing as she got from her seat and took the flower from his grasp. "It's perfect, Vaike. Thank you."

"Aw, you're gonna make ol' Teach here get mushy 'fore he teaches a class. Don't get too attached to the bloom there, 'cause tomorrow I'll bring ya a better one!" His hand retracted, but not before everyone could hear him making a kissing sort of noise. Once he was gone, and the flower he had left was laying on the desk next to Lissa, Ricken noticed that she was blushing even harder than she had been, and that she was staring at the flower with an almost transfixed gaze.

"Don't tell me, but you're in love with Coach Vaike, aren't you?" He sighed and put what was left of his sandwich down on his lap, awaiting his friend's answer. But all she did was mumble something he couldn't make out. "Lissa, please, don't do this. He's my teacher!"

"He's something else, though," she said, still in her daze, before she caught onto one word Ricken had used. "And no, I'm not in love with him! At least, I'm not sure I am. How long does it take to fall in love with someone, anyway? A week? A month? A year? I don't think it's been long enough since I even met him for me to be in love."

"I don't think there's a set amount of time it takes to fall in love with someone. If there is, I think I always get rejected before it gets to that amount of time." Ricken, slightly wary of saying anything else on the matter at hand, gave a small shake of his head as he thought about what answer she could be given. "Maybe it takes like six months? I don't know. I'm not the romantically inclined one of your friends."

"Asking Maribelle isn't going to happen. She would tell me love at first sight, that it's all like fairy tales, that I am totally, unmistakably in love, and that I need to just make out with him already. And that's not what I want. I just want to know if what I'm feeling is romance or just some weird crush." Lissa played with the flower she had been given, one that was blooming so beautifully for it being wintertime. "Except I better hope it's love, because I'm sort of dating Vaike, and it would be wrong to be with him and not in love."

"Hold on, you're actually _dating_ him?" Having made the mistake of putting something into his mouth again, Ricken nearly choked on his bite of sandwich. "He's so old compared to you! Like, isn't he older than your brother? How is Chrom even okay with this?" There wasn't enough time left in the lunch period to give a good answer to that last question, but Lissa sure tried to do it justice, telling her friend about almost everything that had happened over the winter break, starting with that last day celebration.

By the time he had to leave, he hadn't heard everything, but he was fairly certain that he was firmly on the side he felt Chrom should have been on, the one where Lissa should not have ever gotten involved with Vaike. But he had heard enough to know that Chrom was in some weird middle ground, because he was easily swayed into believing things, and she was trying her best to make the promises she wanted to keep. While her brother may have believed those promises, Ricken couldn't find it inside himself to do that, something he made very clear as he was packing his things up to head to class. She listened to his concerns, which were mostly about how Vaike would probably mistreat her, and shrugged them off; after all, if her brother who was old friends with the guy could be made to be okay with things, one of the guy's students would have to come around eventually.

* * *

Being in a relationship with a fellow staff member was odd, and while Lissa had first been slightly worried that people would disapprove of it just because it wouldn't allow them to separate their work life from their personal lives, she quickly realized that she wasn't the only person in the school who was with someone else there. It actually wasn't so much of a realization as it was her riding to the school one morning and just letting it soak in that she was there with both Chrom and Robin, and neither of them were going to be going anywhere but the school for the day. They were married and working together, so if she and Vaike were just testing the dating waters, that had to have been perfectly fine, even though one example didn't make everything necessarily okay.

On one day when Ricken didn't show up to school, meaning she would have been eating lunch alone, she decided instead to take a walk down to the teachers' lounge and see if anyone she could strike up conversation with was in there. The first person she noticed was her brother, sitting at the furthest table from the door with his phone at his ear (on the other end of the line, most likely, was the poor soul who was charged with watching Lucina for the day), trying to have a somewhat decent meal with his wife, who was reaching across the table to grab his phone from him. Then she looked a bit more to the side and saw Vaike, sitting alone with a flower in front of him, which made her realize that he must have come into the lounge every day before he came to bring her whatever gift he had that day. And he seemed to have a never-ending supply of beautiful flowers, it seemed.

Her heart told her to sit with her boyfriend, but her mind told her to keep looking to see if there was anyone else she could talk to—which was when she noticed that a pair of spectacled eyes were fixated on her from the table directly in front of her. "Why, hello there Lissa," the dry voice belonging to the woman looking at her greeted. "What brings you into this confined space today? Surely it is not the presence of all of us here, but rather one particular individual."

"Ac-actually, it's kind of the first one." Trying not to speak too loudly, so that Vaike wouldn't hear her and ruin what she was doing, Lissa hopped up into the chair across from who had greeted her. "I've never had a lunch in here with so many others, so I thought, since my normal lunch buddy's gone today, why not come in here? Is that surprising?"

"Certainly. Everyone has often questioned aloud when you would make your grand appearance in here, and it seems today is the day." The woman rest her hands on the table before her, leaning forward a bit to get closer to Lissa. "So, let me ask something more of you. If you are in here for all of us, what sort of discussions were you looking to have?"

How she was able to read what was on Lissa's mind, she'd never know. "Just, uh, some friendly ones, I guess. Is that weird, Miriel?"

"Not at all. Friendly discussions in here tend to end up in halfhearted dares or someone's hand being forced into buying lunch for all of us for a week, so we shall tread carefully through these waters." Leaning even closer still, Miriel was virtually right in Lissa's face before she spoke again. "How about we start by breaching the topic that I am sure any and all listening to me drone on are expecting me to mention?"

"That sounds like it wouldn't be too bad," Lissa said, smiling a little, but she instantly regretted saying anything at all. Everyone in the room, aside from the two in the corner fighting over the phone, rushed to stand around the table, shoulder to shoulder, no room between anyone. "Er, what's going on?"

"You're considered new meat in the lounge today, and I cannot help but say that a fair number of us are petty gossips when it comes to the staff of the school. How fitting is it that our new meat is one of our favorite topics." Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose a bit, Miriel leaned back and prepared to open up discussion. "You should be advised that there will be less questioning of you and your romantic life and more mentioning of everyone else's lives simply because the other half of your pair dines with us frequently."

That was when Lissa felt an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and a flower was placed in her lap. "Hey there, beautiful. Nice t'see ya coming around these parts when they haven't been decorated for a meal by the Vaike." His chin was resting on her head, and with how loud his voice was, it would have been a miracle if anyone within twenty feet of the room hadn't heard what he said. "But now that you're here, we've gotta get you into the talkin'."

"Into the talking? I don't think I understand what you mean by that." While she was talking, she didn't notice that everyone standing around the table was pulling out their phones and accessing something on them, but once she was focused on what was happening around her and not trying to comprehend what her boyfriend was telling her, she saw that everyone had pulled up pictures of some sort, and were now wanting to show her them. "What's all this? What's going on?"

"As Vaike said, we have to immerse you into the conversation. Since we all know of you and your romantic exploits, it is time for us to show you ours." Miriel slid her phone across the table so that it rested right in front of Lissa, and the younger woman picked it up, looking at what was on the screen. "That would be my significant other, in case you were grossly curious about why he resembles what a father figure in my life would hypothetically look like." The man kind of did look like he could have been Miriel's father, although with the way he was smiling at the camera, it was clear that someone he romantically loved was taking the picture. "While he is not educated enough to have pursued a career as an instructor, what abilities he does have are more than enough to satisfy his simple pleasures, as well as allow me to remain employed here as an educator."

"That's, uh, really nice. I'm glad you showed me this." Pushing the phone back across the table, Lissa didn't expect to have another one sent sliding towards her in return. Much like with the first, she picked it up and started looking at the screen. "Ooh, I really like this guy's sweater! It's all snazzy and cute!" The person that phone belonged to, much like Miriel had, broke out into a long explanation of who the guy was and sort of what he did, but she was cut off by someone complaining that her story was taking too long, and so the exchanging of phones happened once more. The next phone Lissa's hands touched felt sort of greasy, as if whoever it belonged to hadn't washed their hands after eating before they touched it, and she made a comment on its cleanliness state.

"Wow, sorry, I didn't think to wash my hands before I came in here," the guy who seemed to be the owner of the phone said, and everyone who knew him laughed. "What? We were having a cake preparation day in class and I didn't think that the cake batter would leave any sort of mess on my hands. N-not like I actually did anything with the batter that wasn't bake it, mind you. I would never eat that stuff raw."

Repositioning himself so that he could whisper easily into Lissa's ear, Vaike explained who the guy was, over the sounds of the guy still talking about his cake batter-covered hands. "That fellow talking there, that's Stahl. Guy only has a position here 'cause, like you know, your sister had a real fond spot for teachin' people to fend for themselves in the real world, and he was one 'a mine and your brother's friends back in the day. I bet'cha, if you look at whatever picture he pulled up, it's either horses or food. Or both."

"I remember him from the first day assembly, actually!" she replied back in a fairly soft whisper, before she looked to see if what Vaike's guess as to what the picture could be of was true or not. He was pretty much on point, with the image being some well-presented buffet meal that seemed to be homemade. "This one doesn't have a person in it," she announced to the group, before setting the phone down and watching it glide with ease back to where it belonged, "and that's kind of weird."

"Sorry that I don't have anyone in my life who's worthy of being showed off. That meal was the hardest thing I'd ever prepared for anyone, and since you weren't at that wedding or its reception, I figured you'd appreciate the sight of it." Most everyone in the group started laughing, aside from Lissa, who was trying to understand why anyone would laugh, and Miriel, who was shaking her head and sighing. "You guys don't get it. I'm going to go back to my classroom instead of hanging around you judgmental people." As he left, Lissa was able to catch a few seconds of what the guy looked like, and for being as fond of food as he seemed to be, the guy was as thin as a rail.

Before the next phone was passed around, Miriel had to silence everyone's laughter with a curt hand wave, and the chuckles faltered. "Every time, he does that, with some arrangement that he's prepared for someone present. Never did I think that the meal I had him prepare as a gracious gift to the attendees of my recent nuptials would be his choice of picture. I do applaud him for picking that image and not the one of the cake, however." She gave a soft cough after that, and that was when the weird introduction game continued. There were three people that followed, all of whom had been teachers that worked there before the current school year, so getting to hold their phones and hear about their loved ones was a bit like a walk down memory then. Even still, one of the pictures was of a different teacher, which made her feel a bit better about the fact that she had Vaike resting on her back.

Finally, the last phone came sliding over towards her. "Now Lissa, I know you may have some preconceptions about who you may see on that screen," the strict voice of Frederick said, which shocked Lissa a bit because she hadn't even noticed that he had been present, "but let me be the first to tell you that who you see means the world to me, and insulting her in my presence will not be tolerated."

"Insulting her?" Thinking that she was about to see a picture of Maribelle, Lissa thought about how angry her friend would be to know that the guy she went to one dance with was considering her precious to him, but when she actually looked at the image, she was more shocked than she was when she saw that buffet picture. And then she realized why he had told her not to insult the person in the image: the woman pictured was one of Chrom's ex-girlfriends, one that had been really clumsy and strangely into horses. She had personally known this person back when she and her brother were a couple, and she hadn't really been sure as to what had happened to her after that break-up, with how messy of an ordeal it had been. "Oh. I get it. So, does my brother know you're with her?"

"He does know, and while he does not want her around him at any costs, he approves of the relationship, much like he has for years now." The inclusion of the word _years_ made his point sink deep into her core, because it hadn't been years since Frederick had brought Maribelle to that party. It had barely been months. Had she been aware that she was being used by an already-taken man? Her eyes narrowed at the screen, staring at it intently, at the face of the woman in the picture—did _she_ know that the man she was with had taken another woman to a party? But that wasn't even the worst thing that she noticed as she looked at the picture before her, as that title went to what she saw when she looked to the bottom of the screen, and saw that someone had been cropped out, leaving nothing but two thin pigtails that were situated on the top of someone's head as the only evidence that someone else was there. So not only had Frederick taken Maribelle to that party, but he had done it with a woman and _a child_ at home? That thought made her drop the phone and quickly push it away from her, feeling tainted from having discovered that, and she knew it would take some explaining before she'd be able to trust that man again.

"And with that, whatever that was, I would consider this immersion exercise complete. Next time you come in for the lunch period, maybe actual discussions involving more than just one person giving an impassioned monologue about a loved one will occur." As if she knew it was coming by magic, the bell ending lunch rang, and everyone started to file out of the lounge, saying farewell to everyone as they did. Lissa remained seated until everyone was gone, and until after Vaike had kissed her on the cheek and told her to have a good day.

Once the room was mostly cleared, she looked to see that the people in the corner were still there, although not on the phone any longer. She got down from her seat and walked over to the side of the table they were at, catching their attention as she did. "So, guess who spent her first lunch in here with everyone?"

"You did. We heard. When we weren't having to explain to the babysitter that neither of us can go pick up Lucina at the moment, because we're both terribly busy with work, and we get it that her biting isn't okay, but there isn't anything we can do about it." Robin's explanation of what had gone on, coupled with the way Chrom was muttering things to himself while looking at a blank spot on the wall, made Lissa wish she hadn't tried to strike up conversation with the two people there she knew best. The unfamiliar people had been more interesting, and that made her want to try and familiarize herself with them more.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for the love y'all are showing this fic! Hope this chapter was suitable, and I'll post the next one next week!**


	4. Drawing (to a) Close

Second semester seemed to fly by quicker than the first one, and while it was impossible for Lissa to pinpoint exactly why that was, she knew that part of it had to do with her having more to do with her time. Her office wasn't empty nearly as often as it used to be, with students in and out regularly for all sorts of ailments, and when it was empty, she took the time to slip into her daydreams and imagine the day when she didn't have to work and could just lounge around her beautiful dream home with Vaike by her side. She didn't want to ever admit to it, but she had fallen deeply in love with him in the months they'd been together, and just thinking about him could get her to start blushing. That was okay, though, because when she didn't have to be in her office, she was usually somewhere near him, regardless of if he was able to focus on her or not.

Her regular lunches with her friend had become less of a constant, happening only once or twice a week, because she had taken strongly to sitting in the teachers' lounge and getting to gossip about the happenings at the school with the group that gathered in there. They had become much like a little family for her, so much that when it was her birthday, they all brought in presents and goodies just for her, something she had never expected would happen. And that, as well as the everyday happenings that were overwhelmingly positive, reminded her that it hadn't even been a year since she got this job, and she was so thankful for everything that had changed in her life since she had started working. The friends, the romance, even the strengthened relationship between her and her brother from spending more time together in a professional setting, it was all so much better for her. There wasn't a single thing she would change about any of it.

Until prom came around, that was. When she had been in school, she had loved going to the dances with her friends, because who would ever take her as a date to one? As a staff member, she could volunteer as a chaperone for the dance and get to dress up and act very much like she was going just for fun, even though her job would be to make sure no one got into any trouble. That was when gears began turning in her head, because what could possibly be better for making up for not having a date to her actual proms than to go with Vaike as chaperones and dance the night away together? Nothing could be, and she needed to make that happen.

Seeing the sheet for signing up instantly dashed that idea, though, because of what day the dance was on. Her first thought was to be bummed that she wouldn't be able to reclaim one of those few off things from her high school experience, but then a second one crossed her mind: how had Chrom managed to schedule the school's prom on the same day as his daughter's birthday? Didn't he have to be at the dance, but didn't he also have to be available for his little girl the whole day? She never exactly asked him how that happened, but the rumor that swept through the school was that he hadn't gotten a choice, that the teacher at the head of the prom committee forced his hand to schedule it that day.

But why wasn't important. What was important was that by the two things being on the same day, it meant that there wasn't going to be any sort of chaperoning duties from the man who ran the place, his substitute teacher of a wife, or his sister who could have masqueraded as one of the students. And that wasn't what Lissa wanted in the slightest, but she wasn't going to ignore her niece's birthday for some wish-fulfillment dance adventure that wouldn't have been likely to happen anyway, because she had a hard time even imagining Vaike being able to dress up nicely enough to be let into the event. Which meant that, on the day of April 20th, rather than getting excited about dolling up and watching students try to be as attractive yet modest as possible, Lissa was mentally preparing herself for a night out with a newly-two-year-old. Since the girl's two actions were to scream and to be a brat, it was not going to be a pleasant experience, but it was the choice of the two options she had that she had to make. Either that or she possibly get kicked out of her living arrangements for putting romance before family.

She was very clearly always going to put family first. "I'm surprised you actually decided to join us tonight," Chrom said when he saw that his sister had gotten ready not for a dance but for the family dinner. "I know how you feel about Lucina sometimes, and I wouldn't have been too hurt if you hadn't wanted to come with us."

"It's her birthday and I live with her. I'm sure in that tiny mind of hers, she'd catch on to something being a bit weird if I didn't come with." Hearing Chrom say that, she caught onto the fact that he had honestly thought she was going to pick prom over her niece. "Besides, someone's gotta be around to take pictures of her being a little terror while you and Robin try to stop her from terrorizing everyone."

"That's very funny, but she's going to be on her best behavior tonight." Walking out of the little girl's bedroom while holding her, Robin couldn't help but smile when she saw that both of the other people present were already ready for the night. "See, look, I actually got her to wear something nice. It's got to be a sign."

By something nice, she meant that Lucina was wearing a simple dress and had a small tiara on her head. It was cute to see the girl actually okay with being put in something of that nature, but at the same time, it was also the furthest thing from a positive sign on the planet. "I think she's going to keep her little princess act up for maybe ten minutes," Lissa remarked, looking closely at the child's somewhat displeased expression. "And then she's going to have the biggest meltdown she's ever had. Mark my words."

"Please don't say something like that. You know she can hear you and she knows that you're waiting for her to do it." As payback for mentioning what she had just said, Chrom grabbed one of his sister's pigtails and tugged on it, causing her to yelp, before turning and slapping him. "Hey! She has eyes too, you know. Violence against her father is not allowed."

When Lissa slapped him again, she was sure that she got Lucina to laugh from it. She was also sure that the child wasn't going to remain in such good spirits for very much longer, no matter how much her parents hoped she would. And at least for the car ride to the restaurant they were going to, she seemed to be proving her parents right, just sitting silently in her seat without so much as a whimper. But once they got inside the restaurant and were given a table, that was when all hell absolutely broke loose, all because the girl did not want to sit anywhere but squarely in between her parents.

That would have worked, had there been enough room for a high chair to fit in between their chairs. But it was a small table and there was only enough room for two chairs on each side, which meant she only got to sit next to one. The tears that came with the screaming and hitting were big and messy, covering the table, the front of her dress, and the arms of her parents within minutes. She was causing a scene that everyone had to stop and look at, because it was so unbelievable and so obnoxious, and by the time she calmed down and accepted that she couldn't have a parent on each side, several other patrons of the restaurant had already left due to the noise.

That was the only meltdown that happened that night, something the three adults accompanying her were quite thankful for. When she wasn't screaming or upset, Lucina was a fairly decent child to be around, although everyone was waiting for when she'd finally inherit some part of either of her parents' temperaments. She liked causing trouble and didn't like being punished for it, which was why, even though she had caused a huge scene, she wasn't even slightly scolded for it, as that would have only made things worse in the end. What did happen was that no one talked to her, even though she should have been showered with attention just because she it was her birthday and that meant it was time to celebrate her. Although gifts for her had been brought into the restaurant, they weren't opened there, to teach her a lesson about behaving in public. She had to learn some way, after all.

Aside from the rough start to it, the dinner overall was fine, something brought up on the ride home. "You would think that if she was going to pull that stunt once, she would try it again to see if it got a different reaction." It was more of an out-loud musing than something she wanted comments on, but when Robin said what she was thinking, it was usually worth giving an opinion on.

"I don't know, maybe she's learned that that's not okay to do. Which would be great if she has learned that. I'm tired of her doing things over and over again just to see if I'm not angry about it the next time." Chrom shook his head at the thought of some of the things the girl would do multiple times. "So if tonight's the point where she's going to stop pulling everything out of drawers for me to put it back just so she can do it again, it's about time."

"Or maybe this means you guys will be able to take her places and she'll only scream about it once?" Lissa suggested with a laugh. "Wouldn't her learning that skill have been super helpful when you were taking her to class with you, Robin?"

"Yes! I swear she was the biggest distraction for everyone in every single class I took with her present! Thank goodness we're past that experience now, and that she gets to deal with babysitters all the time." Her voice dropped to a softer tone, most likely so that Lucina would be less interested in listening. "It would be lovely if she'd stop attacking the poor people we pay to watch her, though."

"Does she really still do that?" Looking at her niece, it was hard to even imagine that the girl had a habit of hurting people she didn't know, but Lissa knew it from having seen it happen that it was all too true. When she got another loud yes in response, she sighed, grabbing at the girl's cheek to make her whine a bit. "What a little brat, am I right?"

Chrom's response came in a stern voice. "Lissa, no calling her a brat. She's a good kid, deep down underneath her…rough exterior."

"I don't know if 'rough exterior' is what I'd call it, but okay." She pulled her hand back from Lucina's face before the girl had the idea of trying to hurt her. "I think she's been so spoiled from the moment she was born that she's just trying to get what she wants and how she wants it. And you guys just put up with it."

"Please, it's her birthday, let's not get into this sort of conversation around her."

"As if it being her birthday's a good reason. Neither of you like it when someone points out that she's been a handful since before she could cry at someone to get something." The hand went back in for another pinch of one of her cheeks, but the child learned a defense mechanism against the attack and slapped Lissa's hand when it got near her. "See, look, she totally just beat up on her aunt for no reason. Not cool."

"Not cool? You were probably trying to touch her, and she defended herself. Kind of like how you slapped me earlier when I grabbed your hair." After he spoke, Chrom paused, before adding, "Huh, maybe she's learned about defending herself from things she doesn't like from us, since that seems to be something we do."

As the little girl started kicking her feet loudly against her seat, her mother looked at her and gave a somewhat sad smile. "I'm sure we'd be able to figure that one out if we could ask her where she learned to fight back from. Two years old and she still doesn't talk. Where did we go wrong with her?"

If it wasn't the girl's birthday, and if she wasn't aware that the parents absolutely hated it when she made those sort of comments, Lissa would have mentioned that they went wrong when they decided they would make good parents while being young. She ultimately decided that it would be better if she kept that to herself, if only because the night hadn't actually been that bad after all, and she didn't need to change that. Going to the prom would probably have been more fun, especially if she had been able to get her boyfriend to go with her, but she was okay with the decision she had ended up making in the end.

Seeing her niece actually behave for once in her life was totally worth not being a chaperone at a school dance, and since she had said she'd take the pictures of the night, she had her fair share to send out to everyone. Once they were back home, and the presents that had been neglected at dinner were opened (almost all of them were clothing, but there were a few little toys that someone had bought for the girl), that was when things needed to be done with the pictures. The first order of business was to show what kind of evening she had gotten to have with some of her friends, and so she sent out the only halfway decent picture she had of Chrom, Robin, and Lucina to as many people as she could think of, captioning it with some witty thing she came up with on the spot about how great her family was.

The initial responses she got were mostly of the expected variety. Yes, some of them were unexpected but they came hours later and were from people she knew were chaperoning at the dance, yet the first one she got was also from the dance—and wasn't from someone who was either a student or worked there. It was a selfie of two smiling faces, clearly strobing lights illuminating them, and when Lissa saw it she quite literally dropped her phone. "What do you mean _Maribelle_ is at the dance and I'm not?" she loudly asked, bending down to get her phone off the ground, hoping someone had heard her and would come in to ask her to clarify. "She doesn't even work there!"

No one bothered with answering her that, although there really wasn't much need, as the other person in the picture was all the answer she needed. That raised the second point she got vocal about, though. "And how did she manage to sucker Ricken into taking her? Poor boy's probably going to be heartbroken after when he realizes she probably didn't even enjoy the night with him."

"Lissa, could you keep it down out there? You're allowed to regret coming out with us instead of going to the prom, but please don't be too loud about it. We don't need Lucina thinking you didn't like being with her tonight." From wherever he was, that was Chrom hollering back to respond to his sister, and she couldn't help but think that he wasn't doing a very good job of keeping any negativity from entering his daughter's ears. But she complied with what he said, keeping the rest of her comments on the matter of possibly wanting to be at the dance to herself.

She did not, however, stop from being loud whenever someone sent her messages about how cute her niece was, or how adorable it was to see people from the school doing things outside of the walls of the institution. That ultimately ended in her having to be in charge of watching said niece for the night, because one of the outbursts she gave off was both loud and late enough that it woke the girl up from sleeping and she was unhappy with that. Lissa accepted that fate, because she sort of deserved it, even though she knew that the girl's parents liked hearing the nice things being said about the family.

* * *

Just like the end of the first semester had come upon everyone faster than expected, so did the end of the second one. But with the advent of summer came the last farewell to the graduating students, through a ceremony that was a bit different than ones at traditional schools. It was a special event that Emmeryn herself had designed when she opened the school, and even though it had been four years since she had died, the tradition she had started still carried on. Allowing the graduates to each put a part into the speeches given at the commencement, it gave every student who was present a voice even if they weren't necessarily notable or didn't feel like they had done much in their time at the school.

The students also got the choice of who was to do the speech-giving, and the name-reading, and everything that didn't need to be done by an official at the school. And since the teachers and staff had to be at the ceremony anyway, it was a little bit of a bonus to possibly get to be part of it. Lissa didn't want to go and sit with the crowd she was expected to be with, because there were two places she'd rather have sat, but Chrom wasn't going to allow her to break tradition, not even a little bit. "As a part of the machine known as the school, you have to fulfill certain roles," he explained, after much protesting as to why she couldn't just do what she wanted. "And, er, the students would be unhappy if they looked to the crowd and didn't see you where I told them you'd be."

"You had to tell them I'd be somewhere?" she asked, unsure if she had heard him right. "Did they think I was going to bail out on them? I'd just either sit next to my boyfriend, or with Ricken's parents to cheer him on. Not skip out."

"They were restless after I told them you weren't allowed to give one of the speeches, and I had to tell them that you'd still be there just to get them to continue on with practicing for the ceremony." He saw that she seemed to be even more confused than she had been before. "And while I'm sure you being either of those places would be harmless, what if they didn't notice you were there while they were on stage? There would be a rebellion."

She covered her face with her hands in shock. "They wanted me to give one of the speeches? But that's, like, what you get your favorite teacher to do. Not the wannabe nurse!"

"To be honest, you were the top suggestion for every position we needed someone for. I'm sure it's equal parts because they knew you before you graduated, because of how close you are with a couple of members of the class, and…" He lowered his voice, ashamed that he was going to utter the following words: "Because, if everyone is to believed, that boyfriend of yours does nothing but talk about you when he's teaching class, and it's put you on everyone's minds."

"He talks about me in his classes? When I go watch him," she paused to notice Chrom's reaction, which had him shaking his head a bit, "all he does is focus on, well, teaching his classes! He does brag a bit, I guess, but that's normal for him. He talks about me though? Oh goodness that's so weird to hear!" She started giggling and blushing, moving her hands a bit more to cover her cheeks. "I never thought some guy would love me so much that he would tell his students about me!"

Chrom gave a long sigh. "You're focusing on the wrong part of all of this. I get it, you're in love with the guy and he's in love with you too, but there was something more important here than Vaike's love for you." He didn't continue until she stopped being so giddy and childish, and once she dropped her hands back to her sides he resumed speaking. "The students may not come to you much, but they definitely like you. Next year, when you're actually allowed to give a speech, I bet you'll be doing just that."

She returned to giving him unsure looks. "Except what's the point next year? I don't really have any friends who'd be graduating then. You should bend the rules a bit for me, just so that I can—"

"You are a first-year employee. Like you said, this is all for the favorite teachers to get their chance to shine, and you haven't been there long enough for people to rightfully consider you their favorite. Besides, if I bent that rule and let you speak, I'd have to bend it every year in the future. I can't give you special perks just because you're my sister." He punched her in the shoulder, making her slap him back. "See, now I just won't do it because you were mean to me there."

"You totally hit me first, but whatever. You weren't going to bend one of the rules for me, and I get that. I'll just sit in my spot, wherever that is, and look like I don't belong because everyone else will have cool college robes and I never even signed up for college. It'll be great, probably." She had felt a bit angry as she said that, but not without reason. Did she really belong to be in the staff crowd at a high school graduation, even though she herself had only graduated a year before? Probably not. But her anger had quickly subsided when she realized that if she didn't belong in the crowd, then she definitely did not have a place on the stage giving speeches. "I guess we'll see when it happens, right?"

"That we will. Provided everything goes according to plan, that is." There was a tinge of worry in Chrom's voice, but Lissa knew she needed to not call any attention to it. He had to have been thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong during the ceremony that couldn't be accounted for beforehand. What if the power went out, or someone got sick or injured? There were always ways to handle those situations, but there wasn't any way to practice for those and all the other things that could go wrong.

Thankfully, the only thing that was slightly off about the evening when it came around, was that for some reason, there was a small child sitting among the staff members, and even then, that was one of the most expected problems that Chrom could have faced. If he had to be there for obvious reasons, and both his wife and sister had to be there, where did that put Lucina being? At a babysitter's place, so that the ceremony could be interrupted with calls about her attacking her supervisor? No, it put her being at the ceremony, sitting on her mother's lap like the spoiled child she was, rather than in the stands with someone keeping an eye on her. In terms of things that could go wrong, it was a fairly minor one, and didn't cause too many disruptions. No one started dying on stage, no one tripped or fell or got hurt in any way, there weren't any names mispronounced, and the speeches went off without any trouble whatsoever.

Oh, and Lissa didn't have any complaints about where she had been assigned to sit. When her and her brother had discussed that he was forcing her to be where he told her to be, he had completely neglected to mention that he had pulled some strings to get her seated next to Vaike to begin with. When they had done their one run-through of the ceremony and she saw that, she almost wanted to cry, but she knew that the time for her tears regarding the graduation would come later, when she got to watch one of her best friends walk across the stage and get handed his diploma that he'd worked so hard for. She was pretty sure she got makeup smears all over the sleeve of the gown Vaike was wearing, because she was crying so hard at the sight of Ricken up on stage, shaking Chrom's hand, getting what he deserved, and then posing for pictures at the end.

She cried even harder after it was all over, and he came to her and grabbed her in as tight of a hug as his small body could allow. "Lissa, I did it!" he exclaimed, squeezing her tightly. "I'm finally going places in life, and you were here all year to help me through it!"

"Aw, you were going places anyway, with or without me, but I'm so glad you've finally got something to show for all you've done!" She could feel tears pouring down her cheeks, and when he pulled away from their hug he noticed it too, and soon he was crying as well. "Hey, this is a happy night for you! Don't be blubbering like me!"

"The sight of you crying makes me cry and you know it." He rubbed at one of his eyes, trying to stop the onslaught of tears. "It's gonna be weird not having to come back here again unless it's just to see you. Which I'll do. If Maribelle could do it, I can too."

"Did someone mention me?" At the sound of her name, the immaculate-as-always Maribelle appeared beside the two, wrapping her arms around them both to hug them. "Of course you did. I'm so happy for you, Ricken, for finally graduating! As for you, Lissa, congratulations on your first year working here. That's an accomplishment."

Lissa, still sniffling and crying, cracked a smile at her friend's words. "Thanks! Congrats to you on finishing your first year at college. We've all done something big this year, and that's super cool!"

"Not trying to ruin the fun friend moment we're having, but I think my parents would like to know where I ran off to. They were saying something about wanting to get pictures with me and my teachers as some last memories, so I guess I should do that." Pulling away again, Ricken told his friends that he'd talk to them again soon, before disappearing into the giant crowd that had gathered outside the auditorium.

"That boy, I swear to you. He's harder to keep track of than my bobby pins sometimes." Also pulling her arm away, Maribelle bounced one of her ringlets with her hand before following after Ricken, leaving Lissa standing there alone, tears continuing to stream down her face. She thought for a moment to follow her friends to see where they were going, but an arm positioned itself on the top of her head, pinning her in place.

"So, m'dear, what say we go sneak off somewhere to get away from all the madness? Bet ya could use a li'l time to yourself, with only the Vaike as your company." Like she had expected, it was her boyfriend holding her down, and she sniffled in response. "Taking that noise as an answer, looks like I'm right. C'mon, let's go."

"No, I shouldn't go. What if someone needs me around here?" Her words fell on deaf ears, as he took his arm off her head, grabbed her hand, and started pulling her towards some unknown destination, despite her protests. It was a few minutes later, after they had gotten out of the crowd, past a couple people wanting to say farewells to them both, when she noticed that she was now in a part of the school she didn't recognize. "Hey, where are you taking me?" she asked, trying to pull her hand out of his grasp. "I thought by somewhere you meant my office or something!"

"Trust me, where we're going is better than any ol' office." The way he spoke was sincere, and Lissa had a hard time distrusting him, even though she really didn't know where they were or where they were going. It wasn't until they reached a door down some lonely hallway, when he had to pull a key from his pocket to open it, that she started to guess where they were currently located. Once the door was unlocked and opened, and they were walking through it, her suspicions were confirmed and she gasped. "Told ya, better than an office. Welcome to the Vaike's house."

"This is, er, was? the student housing area!" she said, still in shock of what had just happened. "What do you mean this is your house? The poor students that this school is meant for are supposed to live here so that they have a roof over their heads while they're getting educated! That's what Emmeryn wanted with this place!"

He cringed at the sound of her dead sister's name, but didn't let hearing it get to him. "Yeah, well, the place belongs to me 'til someone broke needs it. Then it's back to the streets that never loved 'im for this guy."

"The streets? You never told me that about you!" The information was enough to start up a fresh round of tears. "Vaike, how much is there that you haven't told me yet?"

"Hey, hey, don't be crying over this. Thought comin' here would give you the chance to cheer up, not get even more sad." He walked over to one of the tables in the room, one decorated in empty vases. "Guess I ain't that great at reading my girlfriend after all."

She followed him, her teary eyes slowly going over every empty vase she saw, remembering all the flowers she had been given by him over their time together. This must have been where he had stored them. "It's okay, but I'm just so shocked. Why did you never tell me that you lived here?"

"Never came up, really. Not like we see each other outside of work, y'know. No need to know that the Vaike ain't got much goin' for him except friends and a job." He looked at her, before moving to wipe tears from her eyes. "Don't be crying over what I might not have, got it? This place is everything a guy could need to keep a steady job, and we've gotta thank Emmeryn for that, even though she, uh, didn't lemme stay here after graduation. Me being back here now? That's all Chrom. All him bein' a stand-up guy."

"My brother's the one who let you live in here? That doesn't really sound like him…" She gave a couple sniffles, trying to control her emotions. "Then again, you two were friends back when you were in school, so I guess it makes sense. Somewhat."

"If we had more time for it, I'd tell ya the story right now. But something tells me that we're bein' missed back at the auditorium, so lemme promise you real quick that you will hear the tragic tale of the Vaike's time as a homeless guy, sometime this summer." He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, holding his lips to her for a fair amount of time, only breaking away to grab her hand and start pulling her back to where they came from.

He was right that someone had noticed they were gone, and it was none other than Chrom, who they met halfway back to their destination. "What were you two doing down here?" he asked, sternly looking at the duo. "The ceremony wasn't down here."

"I was just showin' her my quarters, boss," Vaike replied, but when Chrom's eyebrows furrowed at the response, it hit him that those words could have been taken otherwise. And since he wasn't exactly the greatest at explaining himself, he looked to Lissa to dig them out of the hole they were now in.

"He's being serious. I was a mess, a huge crying mess, and he took me down to where he stays so that I could calm down a bit." Based on the smeared makeup that was all over her face, there was physical proof that her claim was correct, and she hoped it would be enough to keep her brother from jumping to conclusions. "Plus, I'd never actually seen what used to be where the homeless students lived, so it was an interesting experience." She was too busy making sure Chrom wasn't angry and was listening to her that she didn't think to look at her boyfriend and see the wistful look on his face when she mentioned homeless students. And eventually her brother gave in to the fact that they were being truthful, only scolding them slightly for what had happened.

He didn't hold back as much later that night, when he could question her over and over again to make sure that his sister didn't lose her innocence there in the school. She repeatedly told him she hadn't, recounting the exact story she had given him there in the hall, and after a few times he seemed to have gotten it, but it wasn't something he let die that easily. For the first weeks of summer break, he would occasionally ask her if she really had done as she said she did there, and she'd always tell him that she had. She knew he was just being protective, but it was getting on her nerves, and it made her wary of the first time her and Vaike actually saw each other independent of already being at the school.

That day was due to come sooner than later, at any rate.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks so much for the supporting reviews! I'm glad that there are people out there enjoying this project of mine!**

 **As a warning, the next chapter gets a bit more into mature themes, nothing graphic, but enough that I feel I should make a warning of it! It's not anything you wouldn't see on television, though, so don't get too concerned that you'll be reading something you didn't agree to. c:**


	5. Summer Lovin'

Midway through the summer, training and events started happening at the school once a week, just to get the teachers prepared for their classes in the fall, and to get the staff up-to-date on all the rules that may have changed. By the time all that had started, somehow it had become an almost weekly thing for Lissa to see Vaike, whether it was out somewhere on the town, or at the school in his little home area, so they were more than okay with being given the opportunity to see each other without having to plan for it.

It just was going to be a different kind of seeing each other than they had gotten used to, that was all. Most of their interactions started with stories, either her telling ones about her family and getting him to laugh, or him telling ones about his past and what had happened in it. For every tale she shared about growing up with older siblings like Emmeryn and Chrom, he shared one about being homeless or nearly homeless. He got to learn what it would have been like to be the youngest child in a family of nearly perfect older children, and she learned a lot about the struggles of living in squalor and poverty. By far, his stories were more interesting than hers.

When it came time for them to both be at the first of those training sessions, she couldn't look at him without first thinking about the entirety of his reason for being there. As his story went, while he had attended the school, Emmeryn had let him and several other boys live in the student housing area, just so that they could attend class and not have to fend for themselves in the meantime. She had taken such great care of them that, after he had graduated, he wanted to stay there because it was a safe haven, but she couldn't allow it, and so he found a way to go to college, only facing living on the streets when he wasn't safely in the dorms. But after graduating there, he was back out in the cold—until he saw that the school he had once loved so dearly was in need of a gym teacher, which was what he had chosen to do with his life. He discussed the situation with Chrom and he had given the guy sympathy, the job, and the entirety of the student housing, unless someone actually going to the school needed it. So Vaike was only teaching there because he had been homeless, and the school had become his home, even during the summer.

It certainly explained why he was always at things early and why he never seemed to leave, and so when Lissa walked into the building for the first training session, alongside her brother, Robin, and Lucina (because yes, the child just couldn't be left with someone else), and Vaike was there waiting for them, it was a moment of remembering why, and then it was time to run into his arms for a tender moment. "You two, off of each other," Chrom warned, almost jumping at them to pull them apart. "We don't need either of you distracted from what needs to happen today."

"What does need to happen today, actually?" Robin asked, nudging Chrom a bit. "You haven't quite gotten around to telling anyone anything yet."

"That's because everyone needs to hear it at once. Now we'll just have to wait until all the teachers are here, not just the one who's always here." The distraction of having to answer his wife made him take his eyes off his sister for five seconds, and when he looked back, he saw her and her boyfriend in the middle of a kiss. "Hey! What did I just say about you two and being distracted?"

The half-hearted mumbles of "sorry Chrom" that followed were enough to please him, even though they weren't happy with it. He may have acted like he was fine with their relationship, but time and time again he proved that he very much wasn't. So, to really make him happy, they stayed as far apart from each other as possible for the entirety of the day, even though they'd occasionally catch glimpses of one another while doing their activities and make faces to try and get the other to laugh. If he saw them doing that, he'd shake his head and mutter some disapproving comment, but the times they were caught were few and far between, which made for things to go over a lot more smoothly than expected. By the time the afternoon sun was high in the sky, most everything Chrom had planned for was done and he dismissed everyone who had gathered for the day of unwrapping new books and punching out wall decorations for the coming school year.

He was caught slightly off-guard by the way his sister didn't want to leave when they were done. There were still some others around, which was odd, but normally when it came time for leaving Lissa was already at the door. This time, though, she was hanging around who still remained present, with no intentions of leaving at that time. "Are you coming or not?" he called out at her, watching as she shook her head and motioned to the people she was with, all of whom were teachers she had known from being their student. "Okay, you can stay and help out then. I think Robin and I are going to head out now, maybe take Lucina down to the park or something. Don't you want to come to the park with us?"

She continued shaking her head, lifting a stack of new books as she did. "Nope, not today. You guys have fun watching Lucy terrorize the bigger kids for the swings. I'm going to stick around here for a bit longer." Her brother hesitated for a moment, before mouthing a word (or, more accurately, a name) at her that she could see coming from a mile away, and she rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm staying around here for him. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not in the slightest. Just don't do anything reckless." If he wasn't going to be able to force his sister to leave, he was at least going to insinuate things that would embarrass her, and by the way her face got red and she dropped her stack of books, he considered his mission a success. "Be back home tonight at some point, got it?"

"Yes, I've got it!" she snapped, bending back down to get what she had dropped. When she was standing straight again, she got to watch her brother leaving, a sight she never thought she'd see happen like it did. But just because he was now gone didn't mean that she could just shirk off the responsibilities she'd put on her shoulders. She finished helping the few teachers who remained with their work, saw them off, and then made her way down the winding hallways through the back of the building until she saw the door from graduation night, sitting slightly ajar. She knocked at it twice, then pushed it open. "Vaike, you in here? I'm done helping out no—oh wow."

She had walked in on Vaike just sitting in one of the chairs, wearing nothing but his underwear, and while she was perfectly okay with seeing his muscular body, it was awkward in that it was the first time she'd seen him shirtless, much less without pants. He saw her staring and started trying to cover himself, but when he noticed that she was blushing while she looked at him, he gave up his attempt. "Wasn't expectin' you in here so soon. Sorry 'bout this, even though you look like you're fine with the eyeful 'a the Vaike you're getting."

In order to even organize her thoughts into meaningful words, Lissa had to turn her head and close her eyes. "I guess I am fine with it," she admitted, "but it's still weird! I've never seen a guy like this before, and I know we're dating and all that, but I just can't wrap my head around this!" She turned back, eyes still closed, the image still fresh in her mind. "I'm not even able to see you, and yet I still can in my head! You're just that attractive!"

"Thanks for that compliment. Means a lot to me." His voice was getting closer to her, and then she heard the door close. "Not every day that the prettiest woman in the world tells a guy he's attractive. Ol' Vaike could get used to this kind of flattery." He was grabbing her hands then, holding them tightly, and she knew that her face must have been redder than it had ever been before, especially when she felt his lips against hers in a kiss that she had desperately wanted and somewhat been asking for.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that he had closed his, so she had a free opportunity to look down and see that he hadn't bothered at least putting a shirt on. For having spent so much of his time without a home, he was built really well, and it wasn't easy to tell at all that he'd survived on very little for parts of his life. There were so many things she had wanted to say then, but he was keeping his lips on hers, and that made it very hard to get anything verbalized, if she even would have been able to. So she ogled his body the best she could, waiting for him to break away from her so that she could say something about what was going on, and once he did she took her opportunity. "I really don't know how to feel about this situation. It's just so…weird. You're mostly naked and I'm blushing like a schoolgirl! It's all so strange to me and I don't know how to feel!"

"That's okay, it's kinda weird for me too. Never been with anyone like this before. New territory for us both." He grinned from ear to ear, before walking her into one of the side rooms, which had more places to sit than that original entry room did. After they'd both gotten situated next to one another on the couch, he started tracing his finger along one of the patterns on her dress. "So, er, what would you say if this guy said he wasn't gonna put anything more on today?"

"I'd say that's okay, I guess. You do look really good, clothes or no clothes." She gave him a small smile, resting her head on his shoulder. "As long as I can keep mine on, that's all that matters to me." To so much as think about taking her clothes off in front of him was odd to her, because she had never really thought about how that was a thing people in relationships did sometimes. Sure, she _knew_ it was something that happened—she could thank Chrom for that information—but she never had imagined herself being in a relationship or a position where it could happen to her. For most of her life, she had walked the same path her older sister had, being as pure as possible, but ever since she had gotten herself a boyfriend, she could feel her purity slipping out of her grasp. Was she okay with that? Sometimes she felt she was, but then others she wasn't, even though she knew she felt that was because she was mentally comparing herself to her sister.

But sitting there, in a room nestled in the back of the school Emmeryn had dedicated years of her life to opening and running, the realization that she didn't need to be like her sister struck Lissa like a bolt of lightning. For the first time, she took in the situation through eyes that weren't clouded with a need of pure innocence; for the first time, she looked at Vaike and didn't feel like she needed to remain reserved around him, didn't need to keep herself acting like a ray of sunshine just because that's how she had always been. He could see the change that had coursed through her, as she looked at him not with a big smile and wide eyes full of wonder, but with a softer upturn to her lips and more focused eyes. "Uh, somethin' happen that I should know about?" he asked her. "Didja come up with something you wanted ta say, or what?"

"I was just thinking, that's all." The truth, as she had been thinking about her position as a pure woman when her outlook had changed. "And I guess that, if something were to happen and my dress were to come off, that wouldn't be too bad…"

He made a noise of surprise, before shrugging and continuing on with his tracing of her dress pattern. "Sounds good, yo. If we wanna take it off, we'll get on that. But only if you're down for it. The Vaike ain't doin' it if his lady doesn't wanna do it too." She appreciated his way of saying that he was up for anything she was, because it made her feel more comfortable when it came to actually wanting to do something. Soon she was letting him move his fingers around under the cloth of her dress, and not long after that she was willingly taking her clothes off, not wanting to deal with their burden any longer.

Before the night was over, they embarked on a journey to get to know one another better than any sort of sitting around and telling stories could let them. It may have been a hasty decision on her part, because she had so badly wanted to stay pure for so long and deciding to go for it on the same day she had realized that maybe her purity wasn't as important as she was making it out to be might not have been the smartest choice. But she had fallen deep into the moment, and if there was one positive to the whole situation, it was that she had lost what felt like the last threads of her girlhood innocence to the man she loved.

However, it wasn't like she could be proud of that fact, even if it was liberating to know she wasn't holding on to her innocence any longer. She wasn't like either of her siblings anymore, a comparison that she knew she'd be mentally making for the foreseeable future; Emmeryn had made it a point to stay as pure as possible until her dying day, a feat everyone was sure she had accomplished, and Chrom…well, he had rushed into marriage to get to know Robin in the bedroom. But Lissa? She had just given everything to Vaike there in the student housing of the school, with no second thoughts about it until after it was over.

She wanted to act like she was okay with it, but there was no hiding the fact that she wasn't. No words could express how wrong she felt on the inside, laying on the couch with nothing on but a blanket covering her, knowing that she had gone somewhere she could never return from. A few tears may have been shed, especially after it hit her that she not only had decided to go through with having intercourse with her boyfriend, but that she had done it in a place that had been created by that pure, goddess of a sister she had always looked up to. There was no way that Emmeryn wasn't looking down on her at that moment, disgusted with that choice that had been made, and Lissa couldn't find any reason to be proud of, or even okay with, her actions because of that.

She eventually found it within her to get up and redress herself, ashamed to look at herself for very long while she put everything back on. Having seen how distraught she was about everything, Vaike had made himself scarce until she was fully clothed again, and even then, he didn't come back into the room, positioning himself on the other side of the wall close to the door. "You gonna be okay?" he asked, his voice soft and free of any of his usual roughness. "I saw those tears, and they weren't pretty. Why'd ya go for it if ya weren't ready? I coulda waited, woulda waited for ya."

"I d-don't know!" She knew she was yelling, but she was an emotional wreck and it wasn't something she was trying to do. "It felt like it was a good idea, but then we did it and it wasn't a good idea at all! It was the worst!" Tears started rolling down her cheeks and she collapsed back onto the couch, burying her face in one of the cushions and kicking her feet against the arm of the couch as she continued to yell. "I feel so dirty and wrong and I don't know why I wanted this! It was the most terrible idea ever!"

"Lissa, please, don't beat yourself up over this. You aren't dirty, you aren't wrong, and if it makes anythin' better, you still got me as a lover." He came back into the room, sitting on the floor before her, taking the time to stroke her mussed hair. "Probably ain't much of a consolation, honestly, but it's what I got."

"No, no, it's fine. You still love me I think, even after I started crying while you were doing this with me, and that's what matters." She took a few short breaths in an attempt to calm herself, but more emotions came rolling out instead. "It hurt so badly. Not just in my mind when I realized what I'd done, but everywhere you were touching and pressing on me." She could feel his hand, the one tangled in her hair, tense up at that. "I didn't want to stop you because I didn't want you to think I didn't want it…"

He sighed before he spoke, a long pause in which he gathered his thoughts to sound as supportive as he wanted to. "I don't think you wanted it, not really. Somethin' in you changed before we started, and while it was incredibly hot to the Vaike, it wasn't exactly the woman he wanted to be getting passionate with." At that, she rolled over enough to get to see him looking like he was on the verge of tears. "If there was anything wrong, you shoulda told me and we would've waited, I swear."

"There's no taking back what we've done here, I guess," she finally said, after trying so hard to keep herself from crying at the sight of him almost crying. "It's over and done. Everyone can judge us if they want for doing it, but it's done and there's no changing that."

"No one's gonna judge us, 'cause no one's gonna find out we did this here. It stays between us, 'til we're old and married and can look back on it and laugh." Although there were tears close to falling, he still found it in him to chuckle a bit. "Can't wait for that day to come. It'll be lovely, callin' you my darling wife and you callin' me your knuckleheaded husband. But that day ain't today, and that's okay. Today we've just gotta move on from what we've done."

"You mean you aren't going to break up with me because of this?" She choked back another sob, hiding her face in the cushion once more. Something had convinced her that this was the end of their relationship, and to hear that it wasn't was a huge relief.

"'Course not, doll! You're the best thing that ever happened to ol' Vaike, and to leave ya 'cause of this would be most wrong I could do to ya." He leaned over so that he was resting on her back, sighing as he did. "Gettin' physical ain't for everyone, and it clearly ain't for us. But we don't need to bang to be together. We just need to be in love, and bein' in love with you is something I see myself doing every day from now until we're dead in the ground."

Hearing him be so sincere about his feelings brought on a new round of crying, and Lissa knew that whenever she got home that night, she'd look like she'd been hit by a truck and it would lead to some serious questioning by Chrom or Robin, or both. And it did, hours later after she'd calmed down but her eyes still looked swollen and gave away that she had been crying fairly hard. Her brother had sat her down, asking her if she and Vaike had broken up or something, to which she said that they hadn't, and he made some sort of comment on the matter about how he would have killed the guy if they had. Then, when Robin got involved, she took one look at how distraught Lissa still was, and instantly figured out what had happened, but she had the courtesy to wait until Chrom was gone before she brought it up.

"You two fooled around." It wasn't a question, but instead Robin's way of letting Lissa know that she knew what was going on. "I would say I'm disappointed, but that's not my place. There's no place for anyone to make judgment on your decision, because it was yours and his, no one else's."

"How could you tell?" Lissa quietly asked, shame rising in her cheeks.

Robin gave her a small smile. "I've been in your position before, you know. I wasn't that much older than you when Chrom and I got married." Cue the rebuttals that because they were married, it was a different circumstance, something she had predicted would happen and made sure to silence as quickly as possible. "Yes, we were married! But neither of us had any experience, and we were rather embarrassing because of it. They always tell you your first time will be great, and it wasn't. I felt like I was robbed of something magical."

"I didn't even think it was going to be magical. I just wanted it to happen, so that I could stop comparing myself to everyone else with how they waited and all that." Lissa grabbed the end of her dress and started playing with it, trying to keep her mind off of the conversation. "But instead all that happened was me crying and comparing myself even more to them."

"Let me guess, Emmeryn was one of those people you compared yourself to?" When she saw the tiny nod in response, Robin couldn't help but laugh. "Believe it or not, your brother compared himself to her too! He always said that he wanted to stay chaste because 'that's what Emm would want.' But when she died, he changed. Instead of wanting to be like her, he wanted to experience everything she hadn't before he was struck down in the same way."

"And that's why you two got married so quickly, so that he could do that!"

"Not to mention that's why we started a family so young. He wanted to make sure that, if he did go the way she went, that I would always have a piece of him with me. Was it not the smartest of ideas? Of course, because we were young and stupid, but it was something we did and we never once regretted it." Robin wrapped her arms around Lissa in a big hug, causing the smaller woman to tear up a bit. "Just like you should never regret what you did today."

There were so many questions she wanted to ask then, while they were both so vulnerable, but all Lissa managed to do was give a weak smile, followed with, "Got it. I won't be proud, but I won't regret it."

"That's the spirit. Now don't keep crying over this, okay? You're putting more emotional energy into all of this than you actually need to, and you'll hate yourself in the morning when everything hurts because of it." Holding the hug a few seconds longer, Robin made sure to say one last thing before she pulled away, something that she knew Chrom would have wanted to say had he known what was going on. "Just make sure to stay out of your brother's footsteps entirely, please. Yes, this is one thing you've both now done, but please keep your promise of not getting married or having kids until you're his age. You'll be better off for it."

She nodded. "Thanks, Robin. I needed to hear that. And don't worry, I'll make sure to keep my word. There's no reason not to."

* * *

The rest of the summer fell into a routine that made everything go by faster than it should have, with those training sessions once a week that seemed to drag on longer each time they happened. Adding in the fact that Lissa was regularly spending two or three more days with Vaike each week, as well as her spending at least one day with her friends before they left town for college, it meant that there was little time for her to be not doing anything, which made everything else seem to happen so much faster than it was. That was okay, because she had vivid memories of her previous summers that had been empty and, therefore, boring, and she preferred having a busy time than a boring one.

By the time the last week rolled around, she was wishing that it had been boring after all, because she didn't feel like she had gotten much of a break from anything at all. There wasn't anything she could do to fix that, not when the last week of summer was when her friends packed up and left for the semester, plus it was time for almost non-stop preparation for the school year that was knocking at the door. It was also during that week that one of the biggest decisions she had ever made came to happen, and dealing with the aftermath of it easily took what little energy she did have remaining from her summer.

The decision? To have her boyfriend live with her, because he wasn't going to be able to keep living in his current place anymore. A few of the incoming students were from impoverished families, and needed a home to call their own, which was the entire purpose of the student housing area in the building. But that was where Vaike was living, and while there was a need for someone to be chaperoning the students who did live there, he wasn't the man for that job—and if it weren't for Lissa begging Chrom to let him come live with them, he would have been back out on the streets. By no stretch of the imagination did Chrom think it was a good idea, but seeing his sister on her knees begging and pleading for it made him decide that it couldn't end up being that bad, not if some ground rules were set.

So on top of the goodbyes and the preparations, that week was filled with moving Vaike's stuff to the house, storing it in Lissa's room even though he was under no circumstances allowed to sleep in there. Much like he did in his previous place, he'd be calling the couch his bed, something he didn't object to, because it meant he had somewhere to live. Getting all of that taken care of was a burden that no one had wanted, but it needed to be done, and that solution was only made because of Lissa deciding that it needed to happen.

Was it weird to be living with her boyfriend? Definitely, she decided, after the first night he was actually at the house and sleeping on the couch like he was supposed to. He wasn't part of the family, seen as nothing more than a guest who would be staying for a while, but he was there, living there, acting like he was a family member. Within weeks, Lucina, the picky little girl that she was, respected him enough to want to sit with him and be read to. By the time the first month of the school year was over, he was sitting at the table for family meals and treated like he belonged there all along. Yet he still wasn't actually family, and because of that, he was treated as such by Chrom, who didn't want things to change beyond what he had initially allowed.

"He's going to be leaving eventually," he had said at some point, "and that means we can't let ourselves get too used to him being around here." It was hard to not get used to Vaike's presence, though, as much as Chrom didn't want to admit to it, and no one was happier about that than Lissa, who enjoyed getting to see the guy she loved not just at work, but at home too. It was an odd experience, but it was worth it.

The arrangement was something that got talked about quite frequently during the lunch hour in the teachers' lounge, with the others always checking on them to make sure everything was still fine between them. And whenever someone new would come into the lounge for lunch, their second meal there would involve hearing about how those two lived together but couldn't completely be together, because of the guy running the school. That second meal was always better than the first, because the phone picture game could only go over well so many times before it got stale, regardless of Miriel's insistence that they do it every time. In fact, by the time the semester was midway through, the game had gotten so old that no one wanted to play it any more.

"Forgive me if I seem as if I am being a stickler for what we always do, but by sharing pictures of our loved ones on our phones, it creates conversation and allows any newcomer to feel as if they are instantly accepted into our ranks," she explained, once someone had voiced an argument against ever pulling the phones out for pictures again. "We all get to learn something or other about ourselves through that immersion technique, and I am most definitely a big fan of it."

"Mostly because ya like sharin' pictures of that old man 'a yours," Vaike said with a snort, going up behind Miriel and rubbing his fist into her hair for a second, before stepping back to where he had stood beside Lissa. "Trust me, the Vaike speaks for everyone when he says you have the most fun with the game."

As she fixed how he had ruffled her normally stick-straight hair, Miriel sighed, looking across the table from her at the person who had brought the game to attention: she was one of the new teachers for the year, yet another ex-student of the school who came back to where she had learned. "Pardon if this seems like I am putting a massive burden on your shoulders, but we are at an impasse here and need your assistance. If you do not mind, Sully, could you please pick whether or not we shall do our picture immersion, er, game?"

"A game sounds like it would be a damn fine break from just handshakes and how do you dos, so I am down for that." The woman slammed a fist onto the table in front of her, causing everyone to slightly jump at the noise. "Now how do we play? I can't waste all my precious time playing games."

"What a lovely choice. Everyone who needs to, pull out your phones and retrieve the picture you are going to use to truly introduce yourself to our new companion." Amidst the grumbling and whining that they didn't want to, there was some activity in terms of doing what was actually asked of them, even though Miriel was definitely the first to slide her phone across the table for Sully to grab. "Before you look at what I have put on the screen, I feel it is only right for those with no need for pictures to introduce themselves."

"Us?" Lissa asked, noticing that Miriel was looking straight at her. "But we already know her! She still went here when I started here, and she and Vaike both have classes in the gym! She doesn't need us to tell her about us!"

The older woman pulled her glasses down slightly to continue looking at Lissa over them. "Yes, I understand that you both might have connections to her, but she may not know about your relationship and that is what the point of this exercise is for."

"Pretty sure I know all I can know about them, lady. The doofy one there never shuts up about his ladyfriend." Sully picked up the phone that had been sitting before her, while it slowly sunk in to Vaike that he had just been insulted, having to be calmed down by Lissa before he interrupted what was to come. "But okay, so I'm just going to look at the picture here and, let me guess, you're going to tell me all about whoever's in it. What the hell kind of game is this?"

"Not a very good one, if you ask any of us who have been playing it since last year," quipped Frederick, who wasn't even really sure why he still participated, aside from getting to meet new people and maybe learn if they shared any interests with him. "But as you got roped into everything by Miriel, you never got that chance."

"Thanks for the information. Next time I come in here, I'll make sure to ask you first." That was when she looked at the phone, squinting as she did. "Ew, this guy looks like he's like fifty. Have you no taste in decent guys?" Looking up to see Miriel glaring at her over her glasses, Sully gave a harsh laugh. "Then again, maybe it's more that the guys aren't interested in you. You guys might just be a perfect match."

"I don't think I want to send her my phone after all. She's being harsh on Miriel's guy, so she might not enjoy my food picture." Stahl started to get from his chair, but then he froze mid-motion and whispered to himself, "Or maybe she will enjoy it. That would be fun. Maybe she's got an appreciation for meals and not for men."

"Is this really the time to be wondering if a woman likes food? You should be more worried if she will let you leave this room alive." Once again, that was Frederick talking, saying more of what was on everyone's mind. His words did little in the way of making Stahl want to stay, because he finished getting off his seat and left the room, but what they did do was make Sully laugh again, not as harshly. "Oh, did I say something that pleased you?"

She quickly stopped, her facial expression going cold. "No, why does it take a guy to please a woman? Mind your own damn business, will you?" In her moment of telling Frederick off, she threw one of her hands up, and that hand happened to be the one holding Miriel's phone. The only person close enough to catch it before it hit the ground was Lissa, who dove for it, catching her dress on the leg of one of the chairs in the room and ripping it, but she caught the phone in the process.

First she checked to make sure her dress wasn't too badly damaged from the act, which it wasn't, with only some of the decorations being torn a bit. Then she checked the phone itself to make sure she hadn't accidentally let it get broken when she caught it, which she hadn't. But she had switched what picture was on the screen, and she couldn't help but stare at what she was then looking at. "Miriel?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly because she wasn't even sure how she was going to word what she needed to say, choosing to ultimately go with a typical phrase. "Is there something you've been meaning to tell us?"

"There are many things you could be referring to with such a question that I must ask you to clarify." The woman didn't seem to think that maybe, in the process of saving the phone from certain shattering, Lissa had managed to change the visible picture. "Now could you return my phone to me? I thank you for catching it, but you already know what my spouse looks like, so there is no need for you to be—oh. You may have jogged my memory about something I should mention to everyone."

"Okay, because if you didn't, this was really weird for me to have seen." Lissa walked around the table and the group that surrounded it, giving the phone directly back to Miriel. "Er, congrats, by the way. I didn't mean to spoil the surprise for myself, but…"

"You hadn't meant to. Accidents happen sometimes, and we simply need to take them in stride." Turning the phone's screen off and gathering the attention of everyone in the group, Miriel took a deep breath before breaking into her explanation of what had just happened. "It seems that, in all of that commotion, my phone turned itself to the newest photo on it, which I took a few weeks ago to send to my husband while he was out of town for work. I was not intending for anyone else to know about this aside from him and myself until the time was right, but it seems that time has become now."

"Just get on with it. You talk way too much." Crossing her arms before her, Sully gave the other woman a challenging glare. "What's so big and bad that me throwing your damn phone spoiled for everyone?"

"It is neither big nor bad, but thank you for your lack of caring on the matter." One more deep breath before she got to her reveal. "Based on what estimates I can make, the arrival date will be late in the school year, and it is far too soon to even begin guessing a gender, but I am currently, barring any mishaps, with child." Putting a wary smile on her face, she looked to see everyone's reactions, which were all of shock (aside from Lissa's, but that was because she had already gotten over being shocked by the information). "Why is no one excited about this development? Surely one of you must be ecstatic for me."

No one said anything, not because there wasn't any excitement in them but because they had no idea how to react beyond simple congratulations, and that territory had already been covered. "This might be the quietest I've ever heard them get when they're doing their weird introduction thing," Chrom could be heard telling Robin, over at their corner table, in the aftermath of the announcement. "Maybe someone said something terrible and no one knows how to tell them it's a bad idea."

"Or maybe you could actually listen to what's going on and you'd know why they've been stunned into silence," Robin replied, before adding, "If they aren't going to say it, Miriel, let me be the first to tell you that I'm happy for you!"

"Why thank you, ma'am," the woman replied, turning away from her group to face the pair in the corner. "Although you are by far not the first, I do appreciate the kind words, as they will motivate me when this journey into parenthood turns dark and dreary."

"I can't believe that she's actually havin' a kid, though. Like, don't get me wrong, her guy seems like he's nice, but who would wanna touch that?" While he meant it as a joke, it didn't come off that way, and Lissa actually had to pull Vaike out of the room before he said anything else or someone reacted badly to what he had said. He was quite confused as to why he was taken out into the hall. "What gives? That was just pokin' some fun at her!"

Lissa shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around not just the announcement but that reaction to it. "It wasn't a very nice comment. You should be happy for her, not making mean jokes about her! How would you react if we were gonna have a baby and you heard someone say something like that about us? I'm sure you'd want to kill someone!" It wasn't until after she finished speaking that she realized she had just mentioned them having children, and her cheeks lit up like fire. "But I'm not saying we're gonna have a baby, not for a long time!"

"Trust me, he may be slow sometimes, but ol' Vaike ain't that dumb. I know you don't have a little one cookin' in ya, and I didn't take that as you sayin' you did." He poked her on the nose, making her scrunch her face up. "I know your promise to your brother, and I intend on lettin' you keep that for as long as possible. We gotta make Chrom proud, yeah?"

"As proud as we can, yes." In retribution for him poking her, she poked him in the side, and he laughed a bit. "What? It's not funny. Gosh, you think me trying to please my brother is funny? What kind of guy are you?" By the end, she was laughing too, because even getting mad at him over that was too silly for her to handle. "See, that's how you joke around. Not by being mean, but instead by being a bit weird."

"You got it, darling." He gave her a thumbs-up. "Weird, not mean. Easy, effective, and gets laughs out of everyone without making 'em feel bad. I like it."

* * *

 **A/N: And welcome to part two of this fic, or as I like to call it "secondhand embarrassment and baby hell." Things are going to be a lot more serious from here on out, due to reasons we'll see in the coming chapters. c:**

 **Thanks for reading and sticking around, and I'll see you next week! Don't forget to follow/favorite/review if you haven't!**


	6. Probably Definitely

During the middle of the month of October, smack-dab in the center of the semester, there was some conference relating to something about running the school that Chrom had to attend, even though he had no desire nor any interest in the subject matter. He was going to be gone a week; five days for the conference and two for sightseeing, the extra days only attached because Robin wanted to go explore some historical locations and she thought that they would make for a good teaching experience for Lucina. However, even just being gone a week was seven days too long without being able to supervise the activities that could go on between his sister and the man who lived on their couch.

"I'm sure you find this overbearing, but I just don't know if I can do this. I trust you, and I trust him, but alone together? That's a recipe for disaster, and I'm sure something will go wrong while we're gone." It was the night before he had to leave for this trip, and Chrom was finally getting around to addressing his concerns with Lissa, as she sat staring uninterestedly at him. "Mostly that one or both of you will end up poisoned or missing from work, but there are other concerns too."

"Chrom, you're just being a big worrier! Everything will go fine here, trust me!" Her gaze was still detached from the situation, but Lissa was trying to make it seem like she was enthused and paying attention to what her brother was saying. Her mind had drifted to all the things that her and Vaike could do without his ever-vigilant eye watching over them, first and foremost actually sharing a bed for the first time in their lives. "You just worry about you and Robin and Lucina getting everything packed and having a good time on your trip, and we'll handle everything here. I swear, nothing will go wrong!"

"I trust you, and I know that nothing will go wrong, but it's something that'll be on my mind until I'm back here next week and the house is still standing." He muttered something else, but being so lost in her thoughts kept Lissa from hearing whatever it was, but then he raised his voice again, startling her until she noticed he wasn't yelling at her. "Oh no, put that back where you got it! Right now!"

First she looked at her hands, seeing that she wasn't holding anything, then she looked to the hall entrance, where Lucina stood, giggling like the little brat she was, holding something that Lissa knew belonged in one of her drawers. "She got into my room?" she asked, jumping to her feet and breaking into a run to chase her niece down, going straight into her bedroom—and finding that the child had indeed gotten in there, having torn through three of the four dresser drawers. "Lucy! What did you do this for? This is my stuff, not yours!" The girl kept giggling, until Lissa snatched her belongings from her hands, and then she started to scream, attracting the attention of both her parents.

"What happened in here?" Robin asked, watching as Lissa pointed at Lucina to implicate the girl in the act. "That's odd. I thought I had put her to bed an hour ago. She must be getting to the age where sneaking out of her room to cause mischief is becoming a thing." In the sternest way she could, she motioned for Lucina to come join her, and the little girl eventually complied, but not before kicking a few of the things she had thrown on the floor. "Sorry about this, Lissa. I guess she saw me and her father doing the same thing with our belongings and thought she was being helpful."

"It's fine, it's not anything I can't take care of." It wasn't a lie, but there was no way that she had actually wanted to spend her night reorganizing her bedroom because her terror of a niece had been trying to be helpful. That was how it was going to have to be, though, and while it wasn't too hard of a task, most of the fun came in the fact that she got to be awake to listen to Chrom and Robin fighting over what was more important for them to take with them on the trip. Hearing her brother insist that he needed a pocketknife on him for various purposes, while his wife reminded him over and over again that blades were not allowed on airplanes was just too funny to pass up. The only thing that would have made the situation better would have been if Vaike had been there to listen as well (oh, and if there hadn't been an unnecessary mess to clean up), but he was already passed out for the evening, fast asleep through all of the night's commotion.

That was because, in some weird proof of trust, Chrom had entrusted the act of getting everyone to the airport early in the morning solely into Vaike's hands. Why that was, he wouldn't say, but Lissa could only imagine that it was so that her brother could take the time to explain every "when I'm gone" rule to her boyfriend, even though they had been over them almost a countless amount of times. No sleeping together, no being even halfway nude around each other, no rifling through stuff in rooms that weren't hers, and definitely no explicit activities. She was sure that those were the main points that were going to be hit on that awkward car ride, which was only going to be a waste of breath because they not only knew those things, but they were going to break almost all of those rules, minus the going through others' rooms one.

She stayed up long enough to say goodbye to everyone before they left, crawling into bed as she could hear them getting into the car for the first leg of the trip. Her sleep came upon her quickly, as she wasn't one for staying up until the early hours of the morning, and she slept in several hours past her normal waking up time. But when she woke up, the first sight to enter her eyes was not the disapproving face of a clock telling her she had wasted away her morning. Instead it was her boyfriend, taking a nap to make sure he'd be awake for the rest of the day. He had fallen asleep on top of all the blankets, so it wasn't really like they had been slumbering together, but it was still a milestone.

One that would be easily toppled by the end of the night when they actually shared blankets like a normal couple, but a milestone nonetheless. The entire day was spent just reveling in the fact that for the first time since the school year started, they were able to be in a home and be alone together, and because of that they spent most of the time just sitting around telling each other stories like they used to. That was the only day they had to themselves, however, because the next morning was a bright and early Monday where they had to get back to their work schedule and not have another free day until the weekend, and even then, their free day would only be part of one.

That next morning, Lissa woke up once more to the sight of Vaike beside her, and smiled at that, but something had been on her mind all night that she couldn't shake off. Had there been something she'd forgotten to do the day before, or was that just her imagination playing tricks on her? She couldn't remember to save her life, and although she would have liked to have had a definitive answer, the minutes she had to get ready were ticking away. As she bustled around getting dressed and starting on doing her hair, that was when Vaike dragged himself out of bed and started his own routine. They didn't say much to each other aside from pleasantries, until he was out making them something to eat before work and she was rummaging through her top drawer for something she could have _sworn_ was in there.

"Hey, Vaike?" she called out, loud enough that he'd be able to hear her. His response was a simple yeah, which let her know she wasn't going to be yelling for nothing. "I-I can't find my container of pills, and it's bugging me. Did I move them yesterday?"

He didn't answer and she sighed, miming banging her head against her dresser a few times. When she was done, she looked up to him standing in her doorway, head cocked to the side. "Er, run that one by me again. What's the matter? Lookin' for pills? But for what? It's news to the Vaike that you took anything of the sort."

Another sigh escaped her as she pulled her drawer out to search again. "Of course I take something! Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if I didn't? Chrom would think I'm just trying to follow in his footsteps with the kid thing!" Pulling out everything she had just put back two nights before, she didn't find the container she was looking for, and that was cause for a third sigh. "They're not in here, and I don't have the time to keep looking. If I can't find them now, that means I probably didn't take one yesterday, and I've never skipped two days in a row in all the years I've been doing this."

"Okay, and? You'll find 'em eventually. And it's the work week, do ya really think we're gonna come back here and get weird with each other when we work the next day?" He grinned at her, and his infectious smile spread to her even though she was still a little stressed about what had just happened. "It'll be fine, no worries. 'sides, you'll come back tonight and find 'em, most likely, 'cause that's how it usually works. Now forget about this and come eat. It's about time you had a breakfast made especially for you."

"I guess you're right about all of that," she conceded, putting everything back and slamming the drawer closed. "It'll be fine. What's two days without it? Not a problem, I don't think." The positivity was enough to get her through her day at work, but where her container could have disappeared to was something at the front of her mind all day. That night, once they were back at the house, she went through her other drawers that had been reorganized days before, and came out empty-handed, but with an idea of where what she was looking for could have gone. Even though it wasn't allowed, she ventured into her niece's room to see if the girl had stashed anything in there, and while she did find a few socks and an earring, she didn't find what she was looking for; that meant, in the worst-case scenario, that the container had been thrown away.

What else was there for her to do aside from think that? It had been a brand-new container of her birth control pills, which she only took because she knew it gave Chrom some peace of mind knowing that his sister wouldn't be able to have children until she was ready for them. Those sorts of things wouldn't just vanish into thin air at the exact same time that said protective brother went out of town, would they? That was some sort of divine intervention if it were true, but Lissa knew with all her heart that it wasn't true, that the container's disappearance had something to do with Lucina going through her drawers. Had the little girl not decided she wanted to be helpful, this problem would have never happened, and there wouldn't have been anything at all for Lissa to be worrying about.

Her worry, of course, came from the fact that she had told herself this was going to be her last chance in a long time to redeem what had happened back in the student quarters at the school. With Chrom gone, there should have been nothing stopping her from giving sexual actions another shot, but then this speedbump revealed itself and she was torn between doing what she had told herself she would, and erring on the side of caution and just waiting until the next chance came up. Since this wasn't something she had actually discussed with Vaike before her medication had gone missing, she didn't feel like she would need to talk about it at all, playing it off as if nothing were ever going to happen.

But one of those nights, when they were laying down to sleep, something happened. It might have been the way she looked at him as he was undressing, or maybe it had been how he had positioned himself next to her, but the sparks for a night of passion had ignited and things went over a lot smoother than they had the first time they had tried. There wasn't immediate regret, as the time after was mostly filled with idle chitchat as they accepted that what had happened did indeed happen, and that there wasn't any crying or awkwardness (well, as much awkwardness, anyway). But come morning light, when it was time for work once more and she found herself laying sans clothing next to him, the memories of what she had willingly done despite risks came flooding back to her, and if she hadn't had to go do her job that day she wouldn't have.

Honestly, she felt like she had failed herself a little bit in that situation. Yes, she was taking advantage of an empty house, but at the same time, they were possibly playing with fire. It had been five days since she had last taken her pill, which meant that any and all prevention would have had to have been on his part. When he was awake, she asked him if he had done what he needed to do for their night of fun, and maybe it was because he was still mentally asleep, or possibly it was because he meant it, but he told her in all seriousness that he hadn't. That he never had thought he should. That she would have covered those bases.

And had it been a normal week like every single one before the current one, she would have done her best to cover those bases. "I told you that I couldn't find that container, though!" she said, covering her mouth to try and hide some of her shocked reaction. "Didn't it occur to you that it meant that you had to do something?"

"Not exactly. Thought it meant that you'd still be covered. It's only been a few days," he replied, not watching as she started to tear up a bit. "And besides, the Vaike ain't ever been in this position before. No clue what a guy's supposed to do. They don't teach this stuff in school, and that means I've never learned it."

She blinked, and her vision became clouded with her tears. "You d-don't really mean that, do you?" she asked, her heart falling into the pit of her stomach when she saw him shrug like what could possibly be happening wasn't that big of a deal. "How could you not know that you should have been doing something? Like, I get it that schools don't teach that, but shouldn't that just be something you learn?"

"I guess it coulda been something I learned somewhere along the road 'a life, but what does it matter? Ain't nothing going to have happened. It's fine." He approached her, arms opened for a hug, but he froze when he saw that she was crying. "Er, what's the big deal? Don't need to be getting so upset over nothing. Aren't there ways to make sure nothing happens?"

"There are, but…" She didn't want to finish her sentence, because she didn't want to even think about the possibility that something _had_ happened. There was no way she was going to be able to live with the guilt that she had been so careless on a night with her boyfriend that she needed to walk into some drugstore and walk down the aisle of shame and post-intercourse prevention items. She wasn't going to do that, because there really wasn't anything that could have happened. It had just been five days, after all, and before that she had been sure to take her pill every day for years and years. Five days couldn't have been enough time for everything to become ineffective, could it have?

That was a worry to let rest on her mind for the coming days, though, because there were other things that needed to be focused on, like her job and making sure that the house was in the order it had been in when Chrom had left. She didn't need him speculating things just because some stuff was out of order, even though the chances of him actually being observant enough to realize things were amiss were slim to none. The night he came home, tired and unimpressed with everything he had been forced to do over the week, he was too thrilled to be home to even start asking questions about what had happened while he was gone. Thrilled, and ready to climb into his own bed for the night.

Robin, however, had something she needed to talk to Lissa about, and that meant that after things were put away and Lucina was tucked into bed, it was time for the two ladies to seclude themselves in Lissa's bedroom for a private conversation. "I found something of yours while we were gone," she said, pulling an all-too-familiar container from her pocket and handing it over to who it belonged to. "Pretty sure Lucina put it in our bag before we left. I'm so sorry about that. Didn't exactly think to check to see if she added anything unnecessary to the luggage."

"So that's where it went. Glad that I didn't have to go and get myself a new pack when my old one was still perfectly fine." Holding the container in her hand, Lissa hoped that everything would still be okay if she just started taking the pills again, as if nothing had even gone wrong. She must have made some sort of face as she thought about how that should work out, because Robin asked her if everything was fine. "Yeah, it's all good! I was just scared that something bad had happened to this, that's all."

"I don't think that's what you're scared of." How Robin could tell these things, Lissa wasn't sure, but she had called the truth out into the open. "You don't have to skirt around things if you're talking to me. What we say never gets to Chrom, promise. So if you wanted to tell me that you and Vaike slept together while we were gone, you could have done that and I wouldn't have judged you. Just please tell me you two—"

"Yes! We did! Everything is fine and dandy and we made sure to be as careful as we could!" She was lying to keep herself from losing her composure, and she saw that Robin had recoiled a bit at how loud her voice had gotten. "Er, sorry about that. I just don't want you to worry that something went wrong. I'm not stupid, and neither is he. Sure we broke Chrom's rules a bit, but we were safe while doing it. Just believe me on this one."

She wasn't sure if she actually convinced Robin to believe her, but she knew that she certainly didn't believe herself.

* * *

Just over two weeks after that conversation, Lissa knew that her worst fears about the whole situation were coming true. She couldn't necessarily prove it, but she knew her body well enough to know that the odd pains she felt in her stomach, as well as the overall tiredness that coursed through her veins, was not anything of the usual variety. While she would sit in her office at the school, she'd think about how there may have been a slight chance that what was happening was nothing to be concerned with, maybe that it was just her getting sick or something. The weather outside was getting cooler, and there was an influx of students coming into her office looking for quick remedies for their seasonal sniffles, so it may have just been her catching something that someone had brought in.

By the time a month had passed, she was positive that there was something going on. There wasn't the stomach pain anymore; at least, not of the stabbing variety. Taking its place was the infinitely-less fun constant feeling of wanting to hack up anything that she had tried to eat at certain hours of the day. While it was somewhat of a blessing that her desires to actually go through with throwing up didn't become realities until she was in the safety of her office, it wasn't a pleasant experience at all to be in the middle of calming the raging battle known as her stomach when a student walked into the office looking for her help. It was even less pleasant when it wasn't a student who came in, and the person now standing in her office knew exactly what was going on. "Lissa, is everything okay?" she heard Miriel asking, and the sound of her voice was enough to make her hair stand on end. "I came in to ask if you had any safe remedies for a headache, but it seems that my matters are insignificant compared to yours. Shall I sit with you until you are better?"

Shaking her head, Lissa coughed one last time to make sure she had gotten everything up that she could, before setting her trashcan down and pushing it away with her foot, covering her face in her hands as she did. "No, no, I'm better now. There's no need for you to stay if you don't want to, especially since I don't have anything safe for you to take."

"I see no reason why you not having anything useful for me means I should leave, especially when you seem like you need a companion at the moment. Perhaps I shall depart, but if I do, I will simply return with the man who I presume did this to you." Miriel chuckled to herself and Lissa turned to her, a look of horror on her face. "Ah, I jest. You seem terrified to have to admit that you are in this state to him."

"More like, terrified to admit it to anyone. How can you tell, anyway?" She figured she knew the answer, especially since if there was anyone in the school who would recognize that tell-tale symptom for what it was, it would be Miriel. "It's not glaringly obvious that something's wrong with me, is it?"

Sitting in one of the chairs, Miriel gave a small smile. "Of course not, because there is nothing wrong with you. As I have discovered as of late, the journey through pregnancy is not always enjoyable, but it certainly is rewarding." Hearing that made Lissa shrink back, covering her midsection with her arms. "No, no, I cannot tell by looking at you there, even though I would not be surprised if one could by the time school resumed after the winter recess. I can tell, however, by looking at your face. Your skin has a glow to it that most expectant mothers have, and it shocks me that no one else has called attention to it."

"My skin doesn't have any glow to it. Just the gross sweat it gets from puking all the time, that's all. But that's not important! What's important is that you know, and I don't want you to know. I don't want to know!" She was starting to tear up, her feelings towards this experience bubbling up to the surface. "I just want to go back to being innocent and carefree and not like this! Why did this have to happen to me?"

"I'm sure you are not asking for the scientific explanation when you pose that question, and the other answer I can come up with would just cause you to become more upset. Perhaps this has happened to you because you were meant to raise a child young in life?" That wasn't the answer Lissa had wanted to hear either, not because it wasn't a decent attempt at being polite on Miriel's part, but because it reminded her that she was doing exactly what she had promised Chrom she wouldn't. The distress that reminder caused her was enough for the older woman to notice, and she called attention to it. "You cannot hold yourself solely accountable for this, Lissa. It takes two parties to create a new life, and that means you are not holding this burden alone, even if the burden is one you have sworn you would wait years to carry."

"I don't know who I'm more scared of having find out," she finally said, after letting the words sink in. "Vaike'll be excited and will tell everyone, which would be fine if this wasn't such a bad situation. And Chrom…he'll kill me. I promised him that I wouldn't do this, that I wouldn't follow in his footsteps, yet I have. I'm sitting here, probably definitely pregnant, and I shouldn't be."

"'Probably definitely?' You mean to say, you yourself aren't completely sure on the status of something residing in your womb?" Laughing, Miriel stood back up and walked to be at Lissa's side. "Then the first matter of business should be to find that out. I understand that you might not want to, but it is important for you and whatever life you might hold within that you do know. As you have yet to tell anyone about this matter, I would gladly assist you as you take these first steps into your own journey into motherhood." She set a hand on Lissa's shoulder, and so Lissa looked up at her, noticing out of the lower range of her vision the very slight outward arch of the older woman's stomach. She knew she could trust Miriel with helping her out, especially since they were now going down similar, yet vastly different, paths in their lives, and they had accidentally been the first person at the school to know each other's big news.

Maybe it was a blessing that Chrom was not a very observant man, because if he had noticed just how much time his sister was suddenly spending with Miriel, he would have questioned it, as Lissa had never been one to make new friends so quickly. But over the course of the last few weeks of the semester, the two women spent a lot of time with one another, doing things that were meant to be a secret from everyone except themselves. It was during that time that Lissa was able to, rather reluctantly, confirm that she was indeed pregnant, and that confirmation was enough to make her completely dread the day that she couldn't hide it from her brother any longer. In those weeks, she had tried to come up with some way to tell Chrom about the baby, but every time she thought she had something, a roadblock would appear: what would he do in regards to Vaike? He didn't know about the baby either, something that also needed to get fixed before long, and to be told by an angry Chrom would possibly be the worst way he could learn.

When she expressed these issues, all Miriel told her was to not worry too much, because, in her words, "the amount of stress caused by focusing on such problems can be nothing but detrimental to the fetal development." It was understandable why she would be worried more with the health of the baby rather than the sticky situation the mother was in, because she had gotten to learn a lot about the intricate details of being with child, but it wasn't comforting to Lissa. She wanted to know how to handle the issue of telling people who weren't expecting nor ready for a baby to enter their lives that there was going to be one, and asking someone who was happily married and wanting the child she carried wasn't the way to go about it.

Like it usually happened, someone else figured out what was going on before Lissa had the chance to explain it. The confrontation happened after the end-of-semester teacher party at the school, after everyone had gotten home from the night of revelry. Lissa was in her room changing into her nightclothes, when someone knocked at her door. She called for them to come in, slipping her shirt on as the door opened, Robin stepping inside. "I think we need to talk about something," Robin said, giving a motion with her head for Lissa to follow her somewhere. The younger woman froze for a second, before letting her shoulders drop as she followed her sister-in-law to the arguably most private room in the house, the master bathroom, with its locking door. Once they were in there and the door was securely locked, things grew serious. "So, when were you going to tell us?"

"T-tell you what?" Her voice was shaking, terrified of having to admit to what Robin was about to ask about.

"Hm, I don't know." Reaching onto the countertop, Robin picked up a piece of paper and handed it over to Lissa, who turned pale at the sight of it. That paper was something she had misplaced days before, a list of dates for important appointments in regards to making sure her baby was as healthy as possible. "Maybe why this, which I would have thought was your new best friend's until I saw your name on it, even exists? Lissa, how could you do this?"

She stood there, staring at the paper in a stunned silence for a few minutes. How _could_ she have done this? That was a question she was still asking herself, even though she knew the entire story and knew exactly why this was happening. "I…don't know how I could do this, okay?" she finally managed to spit out, having to avert her eyes from what was in her hands. "It wasn't on purpose, I promise."

"You throw promises around a lot more than you should, because doing this breaks a really big one you made with your brother." Robin had to take a few deep breaths then, telling herself out loud that she had said she wouldn't get angry, that she wasn't going to do anything rash, and that she definitely wasn't going to make this harder on Lissa than it had to be. When she began talking again, it was with a softer tone, one that was more compassionate to the matter. "But I understand that accidents and mistakes happen. You're young, yeah, but you'll make an excellent mother when the time comes."

"So you aren't mad at me about this?" Waving the paper in one hand, and motioning towards her stomach with the other, Lissa was genuinely surprised when Robin said she wasn't. "You're telling me that you have no problems whatsoever that I'm gonna be having a baby when I'm still pretty much a baby myself?"

"I'm not _mad_ about it. That's Chrom's place. I'm disappointed, but in the end, it's your life that you're shaping with this decision." A quick pause. "And Vaike's life, I guess. Does he know? This seems like it would be the sort of thing he would endlessly brag about, and since I didn't find out through him, I don't think he knows."

Lissa swallowed down hard, feeling something that wasn't a bundle of emotions trying to snake its way out of her. "He doesn't know, not yet. Not really sure how to tell him."

"That's something you should really do before…" What was going to be said was surely something along the lines of "he finds out otherwise," but Robin had let her voice trail off when she saw that Lissa was beginning to tremble and look panicked. "Hey, please don't freak out at the mention of telling your boyfriend he's going to be a dad!"

That wasn't what she was reacting to, by any means. She swallowed down hard again as she sank to her knees, getting her face positioned properly just in time before she started throwing up, the contents of her stomach clearly not in agreement with her. But over the sound of her initial retching, she could hear, on the other side of the locked door, someone sputtering and trying to form real words, words that were going to come out in a loud scream when they came. "What did you just say to my sister, Robin?" Chrom, clearly trying to restrain himself from getting any louder than he was, started to bang on the door. "Answer me! Did you just mention two words in the same sentence that I shouldn't have heard?"

"Leave us alone, Chrom, this is just between me and your sister." Robin had to raise her voice over the sound of the banging. "After we've discussed this, we will be happy to include you in the conversation, but right now we need you to stay out. Why don't you, er, go do something else?"

"If by something else you mean throttle Vaike for ever getting interested in my sister, I'll gladly do that." The banging ceased and Chrom could be heard walking away occasionally hitting the wall as he did. That left the bathroom virtually silent once more, aside from the sounds of Lissa crying between her bouts of vomiting, but both women knew that the silence was only temporary, because Chrom was definitely going to be back.

"Well, that was one way for him to find out, I guess," Robin said, shaking her head. "That's one less thing for you to worry about right now, which is both good and bad. Good, because now he knows! Bad, because he's going to murder someone for this."

Weakly, her voice barely above a whisper, Lissa replied with, "He can't hurt Vaike for this, can he? That would just make things worse…"

"He won't hurt him, don't worry. He might rough him up a bit, but in a battle of strength, your brother would come off for the worse. All that might happen is a bit of yelling, maybe the threat of losing his job, and your boyfriend might end up out on the street for a night or two, but Chrom'll come around and see that the best thing to do is to not get involved." She crouched down next to Lissa, rubbing her back a tiny bit to try and soothe her. "Don't worry, though. Everything is going to be fine in the end."

"The end? I don't think I can think about the end quite yet, not when there's still so much to get through before we're there." Wiping tears from her eyes, Lissa tried to muster up a smile but couldn't find it in herself to do so. "I don't even know how I'm going to get through winter break. And you want me to think about how it's going to be fine in the end?"

"It helps put everything in perspective. Trust someone who's had to do it." Robin laughed, trying to ease the tension of the moment. "When I found out that I was pregnant, I thought that it was going to be the death of me. With all of the schoolwork I was doing at the time, I couldn't see myself having the time for having a baby, and it scared me. How was I supposed to balance school and being a mother? But once I sat down and actually thought about it, looked at how it would be in the end, I realized that it wasn't going to be so bad. Hard, sure, but bad? Not really."

"I'd say that helps, but I also know that you had to withdraw from school partway through a semester because the stress of your classes was trying to kill you and Lucina, and because of that, you had a lot of time to think about how it wouldn't be so bad." Lissa sat up from her hunched-over position, sighing as she did. "And I also know that our situations are totally different. Pretty much the only thing we have in common is that we were both young when this happened. That's it. You had a loving husband who would be by your side. I have, uh, a loving boyfriend who's either going to be thrilled or is going to leave."

"He's not going to leave. Fairly certain your brother isn't going to allow that." As she was speaking, the knocking at the door started again, and she rolled her eyes. "For the love of everything, Chrom, leave us alone! We are having a discussion in here!"

He didn't take that answer very well. "Like hell I'm going to leave you two alone. There are things I need to know, and I need to know them now!" Every word was punctuated with a bang, until the last one, where the door broke beneath his fist and he managed to punch a hole straight through the door. "Er, I did not mean to do that."

The two ladies exchanged confused looks, before Robin stood up and went to the door, flicking Chrom's hand when she got there. "Great, your impatience now requires us getting a new bathroom door. I hope you're happy."

"I don't think 'happy' is any sort of word you should be using at me right now, not with what I overheard in there." He pulled his hand out of the door and peered in through the fist-sized hole that remained. "You two have some explaining to do, but Lissa mostly. I have a huge issue with what's happened here tonight."

"D-do I have to talk about it?" Lissa quietly asked, hoping her voice wasn't loud enough to have her question be heard.

"Oh yes, you definitely have to talk about it. You aren't getting out of explaining to me why you went against my rules and got yourself into this mess." With the tone his voice had taken, it was all too clear that Chrom was livid, and she didn't want to have to face that on her own, even though she needed to. She had to explain what had happened, and why it did, because he needed to know. As her older brother, who had done so much to help her out in life, he deserved to know what had caused her to go back on her word to him and get herself into a situation he had tried desperately to keep her out of. "And you'll be explaining what's going on to Vaike, as well. Poor guy thought you were dying, and I didn't have the heart to tell him what it really was." That was when his voice, still showing his anger, softened up a bit. "He really loves you and this has got him worried. He better not be pleased with this when he finds out, but he won't be heading for the hills either."

She gave a meek nod. "Got it. So he's going to be allowed to stay, right?"

"Is there any other choice?" Chrom gave a loud sigh and scrunched his face for a second, before relaxing. "That man is going to be taking care of you and that kid until the kid's out on their own, and if that means Vaike stays here, then that's what's going to happen. Not like I can expect you and him to get your own place together, on what money he makes from working at the school. As far as I'm concerned, he's family now, whether that's what he wanted or not."

Completely disregarded by Lissa was what he muttered after that: "Or if that's what I wanted or not." While Robin heard it and looked disgustedly at her husband for saying it, Lissa was too busy feeling somewhat at peace with knowing that Chrom wasn't going to kill her or Vaike for what had happened. Sure, he wasn't going to be the most enthusiastic about the situation, but he was at least understanding. Was that because of what he had done years before? Or was it because he was finally being less protective of her? Once the bathroom door was opened and the two ladies were leaving, she made sure to hug her brother tightly for a few seconds, causing him to ask her to stop because he was unable to breathe, something she knew was a total lie.

"I couldn't ever hug you tight enough to stop you from breathing, you know," she said, letting go of him. "Just thanks for not wanting to kill me after this."

"No one said I didn't want to do that, I just knew that it wasn't the right thing to do. Not that anything you've apparently done is right either, but two wrongs don't make everything right." He put his hand on her head and rubbed it a bit, causing her pigtails to get mussed a little. "And you neglecting to tell the father of that child? That's a wrong."

"How about instead of you two having a conversation on morals, we get out there and talk to Vaike about all of this?" Robin, already at the bedroom door, looked at the two siblings and shook her head. "It's nice to see you two able to keep civil through this, no matter how bad of a situation this really is. But let's get a move on, before the guy freaks out and does something he might regret."

"As if knocking up my sister wasn't enough to regret?" Chrom laughed, as Lissa looked down in shame at her predicament being turned into a joke. "You are correct, though. I told him to wait out in the living room, and that we'd be out soon enough."

When they finally did get out to the room where Vaike was sitting, his first reaction was to drop whatever he was holding and quite literally run over to Lissa's side, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her a few times. "Chrom said you ain't dyin', and while that's fine to hear, I wanna know why you've been so weird lately. He said it was bad." Never before had she heard Vaike be so concerned over her from the start of a conversation, and as she looked him in the eyes she could tell that he was most likely going to cry once he found out. "But how bad is it? Do I need'ta go buy ya flowers? Candy? Something like that?"

"Pretty sure when this happened to me, a certain someone," Robin nudged Chrom in the side, "decided he'd be a noble gentleman and go buy me a bag full of home tests to make me prove it to him. Over and over."

"Home tests?" Hearing what Robin had said, Vaike's gaze tracked down Lissa's body to her stomach, and then back up to meet her eyes once more. "Ain't that the sort of thing ladies do when they're havin' a kid? But you don't look like you are!"

"Not yet, anyway." It was the moment of truth, where she had to buckle down and actually tell him that she was having his baby. Their eyes were locked, and while she could feel herself tearing up she could also see that he was starting to as well. "Because, er, well, we're gonna be parents here soon-ish." Her words were wavering, as she started to choke back tears, but a wave of almost happiness at admitting to it took over her so she added on to her proclamation. "Yeah, I said it. Parents. Us. Soon-ish."

He let go of her and stumbled a few steps backwards, before collecting himself and punching one fist into the air. "Oh man, that's like the greatest news this guy has ever heard! Look out world, 'cause the Vaike is gonna be a father!"

"He thinks this is reason to celebrate?" Chrom, losing all sense of trying to hold it together, rushed at Vaike, pushing him back more and causing him to fall backwards into the glass-top table that was in the middle of the room. The sound of glass shattering filled the air instantly, and that was when he realized his mistake. "I should not have done that."

As Lissa ran to her boyfriend's side to make sure he was okay, dodging the glass shards that now littered the floor, Robin stood back, covering her eyes as she shook her head. "That's two things tonight, Chrom. You really need to work on this breaking stuff problem." He turned to her and awkwardly shrugged, unsure of if there was really anything he could say that would make what he just did any less worse. It was a cap to an eventful night, and it, like everything else that happened after they got home from the school party, was something no one ever wanted to repeat again.

To make matters worse, the very next day was the one-year anniversary of Lissa and Vaike getting together, and how was it spent? With him being stuck in bed because of a head injury sustained from being pushed into the table, and her feeling absolutely sick and miserable from the previous night. Some way to celebrate their relationship.

* * *

 **A/N: Remember when I referred to the second half of the story as "secondhand embarrassment and baby hell?" Because this is why. Apologies if it got slightly heavy-handed at times, this was actually a learning experience in terms of writing for me? And let me tell you, I write a lot of babyfic.**

 **Let me know what you think about this fic! As always, reviews/follows/favorites are much appreciated! Also, if you're interested, there's a link to a promotional art (which would canonically take place right before this chapter!) on my profile! Check it out!**


	7. Rules: Not Meant to be Broken

One of the greatest worries Lissa had about returning to work for spring semester was that everyone would judge her for what was happening. While she was sure that most of the people would understand that she hadn't gotten pregnant intentionally, she was also sure that some people wouldn't care if it was intentional or not, and that just because she was unwed she was not a good person anymore. After the year and a half of working there and making friends, she really hoped that one mistake wouldn't be enough to lose the friends she had made.

After the assembly on the first day back, it was made very clear to her that she definitely still did have friends there at the school, because before she even had the chance to go back to her office to spend the day locked in there, she was stopped by a few members of that lunchtime crew from the teachers' lounge. "Why Lissa, you are looking quite radiant today, if you don't mind me saying." Of all the people she had sat with in there, she had figured that Frederick would be the one most likely to be disapproving, yet there he was, complimenting her. "May I offer my congratulations on yo—"

"Leave her alone, will ya? She's probably been congratulated so many damn times already today that she's got to be sick of it." That was Sully, who even though her first experience with the other teachers had been a bit odd, she was still a member of the crowd. "Bet you anything she's been waiting for someone to stick up for her like that."

"Actually, that's the first time today anyone's said anything to me about me having a baby," Lissa said, smiling as she looked down at herself, thankful that her dress was able to be just loose enough to hide the very small curvature of her stomach, which had seemingly sprung up overnight one day on break. "I bet it's because no one can tell yet."

"You would be correct in that assumption, my friend." Appearing beside her and putting a caring hand on her shoulder, Miriel gave a soft yet serious laugh. "It seems most of the staff and students in this school care less about when they hear the news and more about when they can see that it is true. I, naturally, would know this from personal experience." She was making reference to her own noticeable stomach, which was masked by the jacket she was wearing. "So many of my own colleagues, who were informed on the matter when I let you all know, acted as if seeing me this morning was their first time learning of my situation. Which, I can assure you, it was not."

"You're saying that, until I'm, like, huge, no one's going to care about me having a baby?" Immediately regretting her word choice, especially since she was talking to someone who had just been saying that people had been caring about her being pregnant, Lissa raised her hands and clarified. "Not s-saying that's how you are, Miriel! I'm just saying that since I'm so, well, small, that's how it's gonna be with me!"

Miriel laughed again. "What will happen might not be as you expect. I understood that you were not being insulting to me, instead making reference to what could happen with yourself. As every woman carries differently, and with your miniscule frame, you might be correct in your assumption as to what will happen, or you may be surprised. The only way we will find out, though, is in time."

"Can you knock off the scholarly stuff so we can get a move on?" Sully snapped, tapping her fingers on her leg as she did. "If we're going to do this before classes start for the day, we've got to get in gear!"

"Wait, we're doing something?" Lissa looked at the three people who surrounded her, all of whom nodded. "For me? Aw, you guys shouldn't have!" They wouldn't say what exactly it was that they were doing, just that she needed to go with them. They led her through the halls of the school, students waving at them and trying to talk as they went, but their destination wasn't the teachers' lounge like she thought it was going to be. Instead, nestled in the corner of the building, it was the only classroom there that had its own kitchen, and when they got to it she realized what was going to happen. "Oh, did you guys put together some sort of buffet or something for me? You really shouldn't have if that's the case!"

A buffet it was not, but a sizable choice of well-decorated cakes it was. "I got a little carried away with which cake and frosting combination I wanted to make, so I tried them all," Stahl explained, as he walked the group past all the cakes. "Now I know what looks most appetizing when its only batter, even though you definitely shouldn't ever eat raw cake batter. Ha, like I would ever do that…"

"He totally did it. Watched 'im keep licking and washing the bowls every time he made a new cake." Popping into view from being behind the cabinets, Vaike's face lit up when he saw Lissa in the room. "Hey, who brought you in here? No one said that you were gonna come on in and light up the room, and ol' Vaike's life. C'mere and let me give you a kiss or twenty, will ya?" She giggled and did as he asked, and sure enough, he planted many kisses on her face, holding her tightly in his arms when he was done. "Wish I coulda been at the assembly today with ya, but I was helpin' Stahl with the cakes. He's not very good at makin' sure they make it to their pans and needed some supervision."

"Can't believe we thought it would be a good idea to put you in that position, but it looks like you did a damn fine job of making sure he didn't eat everything before it was baked." Giving a quick thumbs-up at Vaike, Sully then turned her attention to Stahl, who she noticed was a bit nervous with everyone standing there around him and his cakes. "And you. Guess I can't thank one guy without thanking you too. Great job not making this a hell of a lot harder for yourself by eating the batter, yeah?"

"Didn't you hear me? I said you shouldn't eat the raw batter, so why would I ever eat it? That would be unsanitary and unhealthy." Stahl's eyes darted to his hands, which were covered in said batter and frosting, and rushed to hide them behind his back to hide the evidence. "Anyway, enough about the rules of baking! I hope you all enjoy what we made here today, because it was a couple hours well spent!"

Everyone present started to laugh at his interesting behavior, which only made him more flustered and he ran off, saying something about how he would never dare touch raw batter because of how bad it was. "Telling you guys, he was eatin' more of the batter than what made it into the cakes. I had to stop him and remind him that these cakes are for two special ladies here, one of which is my special lady. And the special lady belongin' to the Vaike deserves nothing but the best."

"Pardon my clarification, but did you say _two_ ladies? As in, you bothered making cakes to celebrate me as well?" Miriel looked taken aback at the news, especially when Vaike nodded at her. "Oh my. I was unaware that this was part of the plan, and I am very surprised and honored at the gesture. So thank you, from the deepest part of my heart. My unborn child and I both appreciate the temptation of sweets."

"Why do you always have to talk so formally? You aren't teaching a class, you don't have to impress us with your use of the language." As if Frederick was one to call reference to Miriel's use of stuffy wording, because he was also one to do a similar thing. "Just say that you're surprised that we wanted to celebrate you as well, and that's enough on the explanation front."

"Then mark me as very surprised, if that is how you want me to express my gratitude." Looking at the cakes over the rim of her glasses, Miriel put a finger to her mouth as she mentally questioned something, before asking aloud, "By any chance, is there a way to save one of these cakes for me to take home with me? I am almost certain that my spouse would appreciate me bringing a baked delicacy home with me, especially if it was baked and decorated with me in mind."

"It's either you take 'em, we take 'em," Vaike motioned to himself and Lissa, "or we let Stahl take 'em. That third option better not happen. He doesn't even like the taste of cake, he told me. Just likes the taste of the batter."

From wherever he had run off to, Stahl could be heard yelling, "I don't like the batter! Stop saying that about me! It's not true!"

"Yeah, yeah, not what you were sayin' earlier when you couldn't stop shovelin' it in your mouth." The stressed scream that came from Stahl was enough to make Vaike burst into laughter, slapping his knee as he did. "Man, that guy is somethin' else, lemme tell ya. Love having known him so long."

"You're one to talk about someone being 'something else,'" Lissa said, hitting her boyfriend with her elbow, which caused him to snicker a bit more. "Hey, don't laugh at me. I'm being totally serious! You're the strangest person any of us know!"

"Eh, I might have to disagree with you on that one. At least your man doesn't run like a pansy when an assertive woman stares him down in the middle of his lies." Cue another stressed scream from wherever it was Stahl had hidden, and Sully cracked a grin at the sound. "Case in point. I don't know what his damn problem is, but he needs it fixed."

Miriel cleared her throat, trying to restore order before everyone broke out into comparisons of people's strangeness. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. If at all possible, I would prefer to take home one of the cakes that are frosted in blue, but I wholly understand if that is impossible." Everyone looked to her as she started beaming, looking down at the cakes some more, and once she noticed the stares she stiffened up, turning her head to see that her companions were now focused on her. "What, did I misspeak? I was certain that I made my words completely clear."

"You did, don't worry." The corners of Frederick's mouth ticked upward. "You just, for the first time, made an indication of what gender your child might possibly be, and it caught all of us by surprise."

"Oh, is that all? Well a color does not indicate anything, if I may be honest, and based on my observations here, the blue-frosted cakes seem to be the smaller ones. I am merely asking for something smaller, not making any references to anything else." She continued beaming, resting her hands on her stomach as she did. "However, even though it was a gross assumption each of you made there, the end guess would be a correct one. The child that I carry within me is male according to his physical attributes, and will be raised as such unless he chooses otherwise."

The bell signaling that classes were to start soon rang, and everyone went their separate ways, a blessing in disguise because no one wanted to question anything more of Miriel at that point. As they left, whether it was meant to be that way or not, they took cakes with them, leaving just one in the classroom for when the students came in, wondering what had just happened in the room for all those teachers to have been in there. They weren't told by their own teacher, because Stahl was more concerned with what happened to the classroom's cake pans than he was with explaining why there were cakes made in the first place.

* * *

If any of the three previous semesters had felt like they were going by quickly, this one seemed to drag on forever, an odd thing because of how much there was going on in it. If she wasn't having to be at the school, Lissa was probably at the house, trying to get a jump on how she could make room for a baby in the limited space she called her own, or if she wasn't there she was out and about looking at what she could possibly start getting in terms of things for the baby. Then there were other events scattered throughout her schedule, like spending time with friends or family, or the occasional appointment at the doctor to see how that little bundle of cells was doing. (As she thought about it, it dawned on her that the reason everything felt like it was going by so slowly was directly related to said bundle of cells, and how she was trying to focus more on it than herself.)

A lot of the problems she had were easily solved just by asking someone to help her out, as long as that someone she asked wasn't Vaike. She still loved him very much and was super happy that he was still with her, but his response to everything she asked was to ignore the question, unless he cared about what it entailed. She couldn't so much as ask him what he thought to do about something, because he wouldn't give any sort of help, and those were the simple questions she was asking him. When she had to ask him to be honest with her one morning, as they were getting ready and she found that the dress she wanted to wear that day was snugger that usual, she had fully hoped that he would tell her if she still looked okay. Instead, he acted as if nothing was different at all, completely ignoring her concerns.

That happened to be the very same day that, while she was trying to pick something off the floor in her office, she managed to pop a few seams in the side of her dress. Hearing the ripping noise made her first feel anger at herself for being so stupid to let that happen, then that turned to anger at Vaike for not telling her that she shouldn't have worn it because it was clearly too tight on her. He had wanted to try and play it off as if nothing was going on so badly that he had caused this to happen, and that was basically the last time she went solely to him when she had any problems with anything.

At any rate, talking issues out with Robin went over so much better, because at least Robin would be honest, would be helpful, and she definitely would act like she cared. It was Robin who was willing to dig through boxes of old stuff in storage to find all of her clothing she had used back when she was pregnant with Lucina, just so that Lissa didn't have to worry about ripping through any more of her dresses. It was Robin who came up with the idea of how to rearrange the furniture in Lissa's room to be able to have some sort of room for the baby's belongings in there. And it was Robin who was always around for whatever sorts of problems and questions her sister-in-law had. She was supportive and she cared, two qualities that neither of the guys in the house possessed; while Vaike may not have cared very much about the little things, he tried to be supportive enough, and while Chrom couldn't find it in himself to support his sister's decision to have this child, he cared more than he should just because this was his little sister he was dealing with.

Because of everyone's mixed opinions and ways of handling the situation, it made the time spent at home drag on longer than anything, adding into the feeling of the semester going by too slowly. By the time it was finally the beginning of March, it felt like it had been a year, not a measly two months, although so much had happened in that span of time that was so important. Aside from the changes in terms of how her bedroom was starting to be arranged (which the only action taken there was a crib being put in the corner, but she knew more would come as time went on) as well as the changes in her appearance, which were slowly but steadily happening, the biggest thing that had happened by far was finding out what that little baby was.

Somehow it had become more of an ordeal than it needed to be. Rather than it just being her and Vaike going to the appointment to find out, somehow Chrom had invited himself, and because he was going, Robin tagged along to make sure he didn't react harshly to whatever happened. The four of them, plus the machinery and the doctor, squeezed into a small room meant for half as many people was not a fun experience, especially not when the doctor, trying to make small talk while she got everything running, asked everyone what they were hoping the baby was going to be. Answering first and loudest to be heard over everyone, Chrom actually slammed his hand on the nearest wall when he gave his answer, which wasn't even a good answer to the question. "Whatever it is, it better be thankful that it's getting to live in my house, with my daughter."

"That's not very nice, Chrom!" Robin said out of shock, stepping on her husband's foot and making him yelp in pain. "It's just a baby, you can't be so rude about it! I really hope that it's a girl, though. Someone as sweet as Lissa deserves the chance to get to have a sweet little girl of her own."

"Aw, thanks Robin! But I think I've had enough of little girls just being around Lucina, so I definitely want this to be a little boy. That way, he can be strong like his dad!" Lissa didn't need to explain that she had other reasons for that want, but if she had been asked, she first would have said that she also wanted it that way because that would mean her son could be best friends with Miriel's son with no worry of them having feelings for each other. And if that answer wasn't good enough, she would have said that it was just what she had wanted from the moment she knew she was pregnant, which was the honest truth. She had never once thought about what it would be like if the baby was a girl, because she just knew on the inside that it wasn't.

"I don't think you want your child being anything like the father it has," Chrom said in response to what Lissa had actually told everyone. "Maybe it would be best if it were more like you."

That made her sit up a bit, having to be told by the doctor to lay back down and relax to not hamper what she was doing. "No, I don't think I want a baby like me. I'm not very interesting, or bright, or anything like that."

"And you're saying he is?" There was a finger pointed in Vaike's direction then, and Chrom looked almost disgusted as he did it. "Lissa, you're much more interesting and a hell of a lot brighter than that guy. Wishing for any child to be like that bonehead is virtually asking for the kid to die before they're grown."

"No, don't talk like that about my boyfriend! Sure he's rough around the edges and isn't exactly the best at anything except bragging, but he's a really great guy." She reached out for his hand, but for some reason he pulled it away when she did so. "Er, Vaike? You gonna let me hold your hand or what?"

The reason he hadn't let her grab him was because he had balled both hands into fists, and was currently holding them tightly at his sides, shaking as he stood there. "This isn't how this day shoulda gone," he said, his voice low and so unlike how he usually spoke. "Shoulda just been us here, havin' fun and getting to see our little one and knowin' what it is. But no, you had to come and ruin it for us. Ruin it for me, mostly." He looked at Chrom, anger in his eyes. "Can't you please just be fine with us for once in your life? Do ya know how hard it is to live life knowin' that the one person out there who gets you happens to be related to someone who really hates ya? Because ol' Vaike knows that life. He lives it every single day."

"When did anyone ever say I hated you? I may not approve of the choices you've forced my sister into, but I don't hate you." Now Chrom was getting into the angry looks, although his wasn't driven by as much blind rage as Vaike's was. "If I hated you, do you think I would have ever let you live in my house, or spend time with my sister when I was around? Do you think I would have wanted to be here today for you two if I hated you? I think not."

"Then do a better job of showin' that you care!" Puffing himself up to look more intimidating, Vaike spent a couple more seconds glaring at Chrom before calming himself down, casting his gaze, which he was trying to soften, onto Lissa instead. "I love her so much, you don't even know. She and that kid are my everything, and to be reminded every day that I'm hated by someone else who loves her…it bites. The worst feelin' in the world. Would not wish it on anyone, just 'cause it bites that bad."

"I only treat you how I do because I feel that, as an older member of society, you should have more responsibility for what you've done. You should hold some sort of guilt that you pushed my sister into this situation when she wasn't ready for it, yet you don't. You seem proud to be having this child that neither of you are ready for." Even though Vaike was trying to calm down, it was clear that Chrom wasn't. "And for you to expect me to treat you with full kindness and respect after all this, that's not okay. You don't deserve it."

Vaike shook his head, finally reaching out for Lissa's outstretched hand and grabbing it. "I know I don't, boss. The only thing the Vaike deserves is the streets."

"Enough, please!" Again trying to sit up, just to be reminded that she wasn't supposed to, Lissa looked between her boyfriend and her brother a few times, almost outraged at what they had turned what should have been answering an easy question into. "I get it, the fact that we're here right now comes from a stupid decision that was made, but it wasn't just Vaike that made the decision, and he didn't force me into making it too. I chose to do what we did that night, and this is what I deserve for it." She stopped talking to take in a sharp breath, not because of what she had said or anyone's reaction to it, but rather because of the feeling of the machine the doctor was using on her exposed and currently gel-covered stomach in her attempt to get a glimpse of the baby. "Can we please just stop fighting for now and enjoy what's going to happen? I really wanna know if I'm right about what _he_ is."

"The mother has an odd way of sometimes knowing from the very beginning what her child will be, so once I can get a good image of the little one, we'll see if you're right or not," the doctor said with a laugh, moving the little machine she held around a bit more. "The tricky part here is, they seem to be hiding themself awfully well."

"Hiding themself? Like how?" A wave of worry took over Lissa, and she gripped Vaike's hand tighter than she already was. "Are you saying they're gone?"

The doctor shook her head. "Not in the slightest. There is definitely one little one here, but I was going to show you their face before we got into what may be between their legs. Thought it would be a kind gesture, to let you lot see what the baby currently looks like. But they seem to have their hand over their face, making it impossible." The machine stopped moving, and the doctor motioned for everyone to look at the screen it was projecting onto, so that they could see what she was talking about. It didn't make much sense, the fuzzy outline not showing much in the way of details, but everyone could at least sort of understand where she was getting the idea of the hand over the face with what they could see. "Now, for the moment of truth, if the little one will cooperate…"

For being so secretive about what their face may have looked like, the baby seemed to be more than okay with showing off its lower half. And from that moment on, Lissa knew that that baby was her most precious son, and nothing in the world could possibly make her not love him.

* * *

On her twentieth birthday, just a couple of days after the gender reveal, Lissa announced to her family that she knew what she was going to name the baby. "I don't know where this name came from, but it's been sitting with me before I even knew that my baby was a boy, and I really like it, and I'm going with it no matter what any of you say," she told them, expecting someone to come up with some rebuttal to her idea. "It just feels like it's gonna fit him perfectly, and I can't pass that up."

"As long as you aren't going to tell us that you're naming the kid after his dad, I don't think I'll have any complaints." Chrom laughed, but earned himself a shake of the head from Vaike, who mumbled something about how he hoped the kid was going to be named after him, because of how cool that would be. "Please, tell me you aren't going to do that to the poor boy, are you?"

"No, I'm not gonna! While that would be nice, I still think this name is going to be better for him in the end." She put her hands on her stomach, hoping that somewhere inside, the baby could tell that she was trying to show love to him. "I'm gonna name him Owain!" Cue the two guys present both giving loud sounds of disgust; Chrom looked as if he was regretting what he had said previously, while Vaike looked positively crestfallen at the name. "What, it's not that bad! I really like it!"

"It is a cute name," Robin said, trying to bring things back from the negativity the two guys were giving off. "And unique, too. I think it's a good choice." She looked to the little girl sitting in her lap, who was staring back up at her with a look of curiosity on her face. "Did you hear that, Lucina? Your aunt Lissa has a name for that baby now."

Lucina's expression turned to one of delight, and she reached towards Lissa, wanting to touch the baby. "Aw, she looks like she's excited about this too! Don't worry, Lucy, someday you and your cousin Owain will be good friends, I promise!"

The little girl didn't quite seem to understand that she'd have to wait to get to play with the baby—she only knew that there was a baby, that he had a name, and that she wanted to get to play with him since her experience in playing with other children was nonexistent. For the following month, all she did whenever she was in the same area as Lissa was cling to her aunt's leg and reach for the steadily-growing stomach where the baby was hiding. Lissa didn't mind too much that her niece was doing this, but whenever she was caught trying to play by her mother, she was grabbed and carried away, Robin always telling her, "Not quite yet, okay? You've got to be patient, Lucina. Babies aren't for playing when they aren't outside of their mommies." She'd scream in response, wanting to play anyway, but there wasn't much that could be done about it.

The desire to play only seemed to get worse once the baby started kicking, and Lucina would be forced to watch everyone else trying to feel him through Lissa's stomach. It was all fine until a small little hand would enter the conversation, and then everyone would stop, someone always inevitably picking the girl up and pulling her away, reminding her that she couldn't do that because it wasn't time to play with the baby. Whenever the only person around was Lissa, though, she was more than allowed to come sit in her lap the best she could and try to feel the little kicks, because Lissa didn't see any harm in it. In fact, she thought that it would do nothing but strengthen the bond between the cousins.

"All it's going to do is teach Lucina that it's okay to touch people like that, and I don't think I like that very much." Instead of it being who usually was so adverse to the interactions, this time it was Chrom who was stopping the fun. "What if, when she's older and out in public, she finds a heftier gentleman and tries touching him like that? We have to prevent that from happening now, and that means she's not allowed to feel the kid kicking."

"He has a name, you know," Lissa said teasingly, missing the entire point of what her brother had just told her. "If you're going to refer to him, don't call him 'the kid.' Call him Owain, which is the name I've given him!"

Chrom looked as if he had just been told to go kiss Vaike or something equally weird. "I don't see what the point of calling him his name is. Chances are, you're going to change it, and if we were calling him that just for you to change it, it would be strange and jarring, especially to Lucina. Did you ever hear me or Robin to tell you to call Lucina her name before she was born?"

"No, but that was because you weren't sure what you were going to name her! I remember that, up until like the week she was born, you thought you were going to name her Morgan, but then Robin thought that was a bad idea and she came up with a new name." A much better name, Lissa thought to herself, but she would never say that out loud. "I'm not going to come up with a new name for my baby, so I want everyone to get used to calling him Owain now, before he's here and everyone's stumbling over his name."

"Oh, I think you'll want to change his name eventually. Just do the world a favor and don't change it to being his father's." That was Chrom's way of teasing right back, and the look of disgust Lissa gave him for it was enough to make him laugh. "But I understand. I'll work on calling him his name more."

"You better, because you're the only one who doesn't do it." It wasn't a lie by any stretch of the imagination. Naturally, Lissa was always referring to her son by his name, and that habit had spread like wildfire to anyone who interacted with her. Her friends at the school had started doing it, which meant that the students were doing it too. Robin had been doing it from the day the name had been revealed, although there were times where she referred to him in other ways because she felt "the baby" was more fitting. And then there was Vaike, who already referred to himself by name quite frequently, so of course he was going to do the same for his son. As a rule he held himself to, Vaike wouldn't be in the same area as Lissa without at least trying to talk to the baby once, using his name as much as possible just to let the way the letters moved through his mouth sink in a bit, to remind him of how real everything was. "And I mean, the _only_ one."

"You're also comparing me to people like your boyfriend, who has some weird fascination with names. But you're neglecting to mention someone in all of this." He bounced Lucina a bit, the girl whining in protest as he did. "Lucina hasn't said his name once."

Lissa rolled her eyes. "That's because Lucy doesn't say anything, ever."

"Still means she hasn't said his name, and that means I'm not the only one who doesn't call the ki—er, Owain, his name." Catching himself at the last second to save his ears from being chewed out for it again, he gave a hesitant smile. "See, getting better at it already."

And he did get better at it, making the mistake of calling the baby anything but his name only every once in a while, rather than all the time like he had been. But he didn't realize that whenever he, or anyone, said the name around Lucina, she'd start mouthing it, trying to get a good feel of what the name should sound like if she chose to say it. Why she would have the need to do just that for several months, no one really knew, because her parents tried their hardest to keep her away from Lissa, and by extension, the baby, the best they could, to reinforce their message that she couldn't play.

Even after being told why that was how it was, Lissa couldn't help but want to let her niece try to play with the baby, especially when he was moving and kicking. There was an instance, a little over a month after the first time the baby had become noticeably active, that she was sitting on the couch, her back propped up against a stack of pillows in an attempt to make herself comfortable, when the kicking stated and she absent-mindedly put her hand in a spot where she could feel the little feet. Lucina saw that, looked around to make sure her parents weren't around, and ran to her aunt's side as fast as she could, waving and reaching to let her know she wanted to feel too. "Aw, but you know if your mother or father see this, they're going to take you away," she said, before helping the girl get situated in a position where she could easily feel the kicks. "But since they're not out here, I say it's okay for you to get to spend time with your cousin."

The little girl clasped her hands together and smiled, her eyes wide and full of wonder. She went on to place both hands where her aunt's was, thinking that she'd get to feel something just by doing that, and she was right. Directly under one of her hands came a movement, forceful as if the baby knew that she was trying to feel just that, and she screamed, pulling both hands back, before narrowing her eyes in a glare at the spot she had just been touching. "Owain!" she screeched, smacking that spot on Lissa's stomach. "Owain!"

Lissa stared at her niece, stunned at what had just happened. "Chrom?" she called out, loudly enough to hopefully be heard back in his bedroom. "Chrom, get out here! Lucina's talking!" In the time it took for her brother to respond to his name being yelled, Lucina had proceeded to go through with feeling a kick, screaming her cousin's name, and smacking where she had felt the movement twice more, so that Lissa knew that she wasn't hallucinating what was happening. At Chrom's appearance, though, the little girl went dead silent, looking at her father with a smile and waving at him.

"What was that about her talking?" he asked, giving a small wave back at his daughter. "She doesn't exactly look like she's doing it now. In fact, she looks like she's just been doing something she shouldn't be."

"So maybe I let her feel Owain moving around again, but she was talking, I swear. I think I know how I can get her to do it to prove it to you, too." Grabbing her niece's hands and placing them anywhere that the baby could possibly end up kicking, she took a deep breath, looking at Chrom. "Just trust me on this one. She was talking, and it was because she was doing this."

Robin had walked into the room at that point, and had taken position beside her husband, trying to make sense of what was going on. "Why is Lucina trying to play with her cousin like she's not supposed to be?"

"Apparently she was talking while doing that. I think Lissa's losing her mind a bit." After watching for a few minutes, during which nothing happened, he shook his head. "Nope, she's definitely losing it. Let go of Lucina, it's clear she wasn't actually talking."

"No, no, it's more that she's not feeling the kicks! If I can just get her hands moved in the right place at the right time…" The baby was definitely still doing some sort of acrobatic activity, because Lissa could feel it, but any time she'd move Lucina's hands to where she had just felt something, the next spot he'd hit wouldn't be the same one. "She'll do it, just watch."

Sure enough, a strong kick hit right under one of her hands, and she shrieked, pulling away from her aunt as fast as she could. "Owain!" her little voice called out, beginning to go into the smacking routine, but she was quickly stopped by her mother picking her up.

"What was that, little miss? By chance, was that a word you've said?" Robin's tone had made Lucina freeze up, trying to do her innocent little wave again. "Not this time. How long have you been able to talk and been choosing not to?"

"Momma, please…" The little girl started squirming, trying to get down from her mother's grasp, but the sound of the words coming from a mouth that never before had spoken caused Robin to only hold onto her tighter. "Please let go!"

"Oh no, I am not letting go of you just because you asked. I need to know how long you've been able to ask for things, because you're speaking awfully clearly for someone who couldn't up until today." The little girl protested a bit more, starting to swing her legs as she did. "No trying to hurt me to get out of this. Your days of using physical actions to get me to do something for you are over. You are in so much trouble right now, little Lucina."

The leg-swinging stopped, and Lucina gasped. "No, momma! Please!"

"While I don't normally condone punishing her for anything, I think she deserves something for this stunt she's pulled," Chrom said, getting in a bit closer to his daughter's terrified face. "Especially since she could probably talk for a while, and chose to make her first word her cousin's name. He isn't even here to appreciate that. She could have said something that would have been enjoyed, and instead, she said his name."

"I appreciated the fact that she chose to scream at my baby for her first word," Lissa commented, knowing that what she said wasn't going to be exactly liked by either of the other adults present. "And it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't let me let her break the rules, so I think I deserve a big thanks here."

"To be fair, none of this would have happened had _you_ never broken my rules in the first place, so should I be fine with rule-breaking? Of course not. She's getting punished for this, and no amount of pride you might feel over the matter is going to get me to change my mind on the matter." With the amount of anger he was feeling rising steadily, Chrom left the room, followed quickly by Robin, who was still holding a protesting Lucina in her arms.

Lissa went to get up to follow them, but got distracted by the sound of the front door to the house opening. She was being approached by Vaike, who had a big bag of stuff with him. "Hey there lovely lady," he greeted, winking at her. "How goes it today? Same as always? Got anythin' you wanna tell the Vaike before he starts tellin' you how he spent his day off?"

"I guess I do," she started, before asking herself if there was really any way she could tell the story of what had just happened without him being in disbelief. Then she remembered that it was Vaike she was talking to, and he'd believe anything she said. "Your son got my niece to finally break out of her shell and speak today." He looked at her like she had just told him the world had exploded, then shrugged and asked her to explain. "I don't really know if I can explain, honestly. It was so weird. He was kicking and I let her feel, and once he kicked at her she started smacking me while screaming his name. It really was just the strangest thing."

"Hold on, her first word was his name? Aw, our boy's got himself a loving cousin, don't he?" Dropping the bag he was holding, Vaike bent down in front of Lissa and kissed her stomach a few times, causing her to giggle. "Just means he's got a nice support 'round him already. By the time Owain's ready for this world, everyone in it's gonna be ready for him."

"Either that, or they're gonna be made ready for him really quickly!" Lissa giggled a bit more, taking the opportunity to run her fingers through Vaike's light hair. "So, what did you do with your time today? It's not a surprise, is it?"

"'Course it's not a surprise, the Vaike ain't a teasing fellow. He just spent all day trying to buy things for the lady of his life and their li'l Owain, that's all." He planted another kiss on her stomach, before moving up to kiss her on the lips for a solid minute, breaking away to speak again. "It's hard to shop when there's no money to be had, but I think I managed pretty well with what I did have."

"Are you going to show me what you got?" As he was getting up, she couldn't help but ask him that. "Or is what's in the bag the actual surprise here?"

He broke into his giant grin. "Ya called it. Can't know what all's in there quite yet, 'cause it'll ruin some 'a the fun, but soon enough you'll know." When he got back to the bag, he pulled out a smaller bag from within and opened that. "However, in here? Total fair game. Think you'll be impressed with what clothes we've got for Owain now. Kid's gonna have girls all over him 'fore he can even walk."

"I don't know if I exactly like the sound of that," Lissa said, but her opinion changed once she was shown all the little outfits that were in that smaller bag Vaike was holding. Some of them were little novelty onesies with cute sayings on them (she really liked that they weren't just ones that proclaimed love for the daddy, but for the mommy too), but the ones that she knew were what he was referring to with the "girls all over him" comment were the dapper little shirts and the shorts that would presumably go with them. "Oh man, those are really cute. It's probably a good thing that he won't be able to wear some of that stuff until he's not just a bitty newborn, I guess!"

"What d'ya mean by that? He's gonna be wearin' all this stuff right away. Wouldn't have bothered getting it otherwise." Vaike waved around the entire small bag, sending a few of the things flying. "Whoops, sorry 'bout that. Woulda been easier to control it all if there was a table in here, but, uh, we both know what happened with that."

"Yeah, we sure do." She watched him pick what all had been thrown back up, but at the same time, she wished she had taken that time to go investigate what was still in the bigger bag that was such a secret. "So, er, what else did you get?"

He shook his head at her question. "Can't say. Special surprise for ya. Don't ruin it for yourself, and just wait 'til the Vaike says you can know. That way, it'll be even more special, when you get to see it and all that."

"I won't go snooping, don't worry. Just store it under the bed or something, that way you know I won't be getting into it any time soon." It was suggested as a joke, but little did she know that he took it very seriously, and when she went into their bedroom later that day, the big bag was nowhere in sight, although the baby clothes were sitting on top of the dresser. When she asked him about that, he laughed and said he took her words to heart, which made her regret saying them. She wanted to know the surprise, and now, unless she asked someone to help her, there was no way she was going to find out before Vaike said she could know it.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter of even more #BabyHell!**


	8. One Year Removed

Discussions as to what that surprise might have been lasted all of a few days, before Lissa's mind was taken off of what was hidden under her bed and out of her reach. She couldn't help it that she wasn't really up for focusing on one thing for more than a little amount of time, a trait that was only amplified when there was so much going on in her life. The worrying about preparing for the arrival of the baby was one thing that she was constantly focusing on, but so too was the way her friends were treating her about the matter.

Her friends that she had made within the school walls as a student had been supportive from afar with the whole "having a child" thing. Maribelle, after getting over the shock that resulted from her finding out that her best friend in the world was going to be a mother, was nothing but excited for Lissa. She was constantly asking about what sorts of baby things were needed, so that she could buy them and send them from her private school when she had the chance. Ricken wasn't as enthusiastic about buying things, but he was definitely willing to help out in whatever ways he could, even though he too was off at school and there wasn't much he could do from his location.

It was more the reactions of her friends that she had made since working at the school that were getting to her. Since there was already someone else in their immediate friend group that was pregnant, it seemed that a lot of the advice and attention that would be passed around was directed at Miriel, not at Lissa, which made the younger woman feel a bit as if no one really cared that she too was having a baby. Granted, it wasn't something that should have been being celebrated or being seen as a good thing, but it was still happening and she felt she deserved at least a little bit of love from her friends throughout everything.

She spent all those lunches in the lounge with those friends, sitting and listening to them question everything they possibly could about Miriel and her child, which, at that point, could easily be born at any moment. Hearing some of the things that Miriel was explaining in terms of her preparations of both the physical and mental versions made Lissa realize that there was still so much that she had to do before she was ready for her baby, but she wasn't going to get any help with that from these people. Her other friends, yes, but the friends who had someone else to spoil with love and support? Not so much.

Late in the school day one rainy afternoon, just before the kids were going to be dismissed from their final class of the day, Lissa was sitting in her office, having spent much of the day fixing up slightly scraped knees from people being reckless as they ran the mile out in the rain (maybe "reckless" wasn't the needed word, as they shouldn't have been forced to run in such conditions). When there was a knock at her door, she fully expected it to be yet another student sent down because of an accident in gym class, so she just called for whoever was there to come right on in.

"I, er, don't think it is me you are expecting," she heard Frederick say, and she froze as he walked in, his hands clasped before him and a smile on his face. "Call it a brotherly instinct, even though we are not true siblings, but I figured you could use some intelligent company every once in a while."

"After everything that's gone on today? I think you might be right." She got to her feet, her balance off for a few moments as she accommodated for the size and extra weight of her stomach. "Do you know how many kids Vaike's sent down here today? It's raining, they shouldn't be running outside, yet they are and that means a lot of scrapes for me to bandage up and make good as new."

"Well it's a wonderful thing that we have someone as talented as you around to fix what havoc your boyfriend causes." After carefully hugging Lissa for a moment, Frederick leaned up against one of the bare walls in the office and took his phone out of his pocket. "Much like you are making the best out of the situation he's put you in."

Her gaze shifted to the floor, lingering on the stomach that was trying to burst out of her clothes for just a second as she thought about what that situation was. "I'm making the best out of it because I don't think there's any choice but to do that. If things got any uglier than they have, do you really think my brother would still be working here? He'd be in jail, because he would have killed someone."

"That is a fair point. Your brother tends to react harshly without thinking about consequences at times, and I would hate for him to have done that with you being with child and being so in love with the child's father." Frederick fiddled around with his phone, tapping the screen as if he was looking for something in particular on it. "Did you know," he said, leaning forward and placing his phone on Lissa's desk, "that I have never once told your brother about the child I have?"

Her head perked up and her eyes shifted to the phone, grabbing it to see what she was supposed to look at. "You never told me, either. I only found out because of that picture you showed me back when I first started eating lunch with you guys. I didn't even know that you and…her were a thing."

"After your brother and Sumia severed ties with one another in that ugly breakup, I did my best to be the supportive friend Chrom needed, but once he found new love in the form of Robin, things changed. Sumia and I had continued to talk even when your brother insisted I ignore her, and once he had moved on I made my move on her." He watched as Lissa went through the pictures he had set up for her to look at, making mental notes of whenever she squealed, whenever she looked shocked, and even the one time she grabbed at her stomach when sighing at one of the pictures. "We aren't anything like your brother and Robin, even though we have been together almost as long. We are much more like you and Vaike."

"So you're here to have me look at pictures of Sumia and your little girl, and to tell me about how your life is like mine, huh?" Flipping through the images, Lissa couldn't help but smile when she saw the cheerful face of the small girl in them.

"I wanted you to see her. My precious little Cynthia." The way he said his daughter's name was a lot like how someone would say the name of the most treasured thing in their life, and it brought warmth to Lissa's heart when she heard it. "I would have loved for her to be friends with your niece, but as Chrom doesn't know that she exists, nor does he know who her mother is, I find that having that happen would be impossible. However, her getting to be friends with your child, that could happen. You seem finer with the situation that he could ever be."

She started to nod, but stopped herself. "While letting my Owain be friends with your daughter sounds fine, I don't know if I can let him have a friend whose dad is as much of a jerk as you are."

"W-what? A jerk? Lissa, where does this accusation come from?" Frederick looked taken aback at the slight insult. "Does this, by chance, have anything to do with me dating your brother's ex-girlfriend?"

"Nope, not that part, even though that's pretty jerk-ish too. I'm talking about how you totally had a lady and a baby at home, yet you brought _Maribelle_ to a school event as a date!" Lissa could feel rage starting to bubble deep in herself, and she had to sit back down before she started shaking in her anger. "Explain that one to me, and then maybe we'll talk about me letting my baby be friends with yours."

"That was over a year ago. There is no need to be angry about it still." He tried smiling at her, but the look of pure disgust she gave him in return was his indication that he needed to clear the air in terms of that situation to get anywhere. "But, since you clearly still are upset with that decision, might I remind you that your brother would have my head if he found out I was with Sumia? Never mind the fact that he would certainly slaughter her as well, leaving our poor child alone and parentless."

She gave a huffy sigh as she realized how right he was. "Okay, so that's why you couldn't take your girlfriend, but why get Maribelle's hopes up about having a chance with you? You know she's liked you since, uh, ever."

"I figured it would be an act of kindness, especially as I knew she would not be so smitten with me once she actually got her chance. I may have played up my tendencies to talk about special interests a bit to throw her off, as I am sure she told you." He smiled once more, and she sighed again as she remembered how Maribelle had indeed told her that he had done exactly as he described. "However, I was mistaken by taking her, because she felt that I wanted to pursue something more with her after, even when I told her I wasn't actually interested in my best friend's sister's best friend."

"Yeah, I can't say you don't deserve her still pining after you, but at least now I know you weren't trying to cheat on Sumia with her. You were doing it to save face with my brother." Lissa looked to the pictures on the phone again, seeing the happy images of a family that wasn't being broken apart by a father's infidelity like she had thought it was. While she continued looking through the pictures, and thinking about how okay she really was about promising that her son would become friends with this little girl someday, she heard the door to her office open up. Figuring it was just Frederick letting some air in (after all, the room did get stuffy sometimes), she paid it no mind and voiced her thoughts: "I've decided that I could allow my Owain to be friends with your Cynthia, but only on one condition."

The gasp she heard when she said that did not come from the man she had been intending to talk to, but the almost pained groan did. That was when she looked from the phone, and when she saw her brother's head poking into the office, his face heating up with rage, she dropped what she was holding, letting it shatter as it hit the tile floor. "What was that you just said, Lissa?" Chrom asked, clearly trying to restrain himself from acting rashly. "Did you mention something about another child?"

Her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth, shaking her head rapidly, but she knew the damage was done. There was no way to get out of this situation without Frederick having to explain everything to Chrom that he'd been trying so hard to keep hidden, and that was all her fault. She might have just ruined their great friendship, all because she neglected to check to see who was opening the door. "Perhaps this would be a good time for you to come sit with us, so that we can sort things out as they've needed to have been for years. After all, while living a hidden life has been interesting, it seems it's time for everything to come out into the open."

"If you're going to tell me that this kid Lissa was talking about is between you and a certain woman we swore we'd leave alone forever, I don't think I want to hear it." Still visibly angry, Chrom only had to look at Frederick's almost sheepish expression for a second to know that he had called it. "Great. Just great. My best friend's got a baby with my crazy ex-girlfriend."

"She's much more than you like to think she is, though," Frederick said, hoping he'd get his chance to explain things to Chrom. That chance disappeared instantly, with the angered man pulling his head out of the door and slamming it shut. "That was not how I intended for him to find out about the relationship between myself and Sumia."

"Sorry about that," Lissa apologized, her voice soft as she was still covering her mouth in shock. "Chrom has this really bad habit of listening in on conversations that involve things he's not supposed to know." She dropped her hands and began to laugh a little. "It's almost as bad as his habit of breaking stuff."

Even her laughter wasn't able to bring the smile back to Frederick's face, and she knew that, although they certainly could still be friends after what had just happened, his friendship with Chrom would be shaky at best until everything got sorted out properly. It did happen, through the use of a long and private sit-down discussion, one that she was witness to because it happened in the living room of the house she lived in. When everything was said and done, the men may have salvaged their friendship, and they may have arranged a couple of playdates between their daughters, but most importantly, they put everything about Chrom's bad relationship with Frederick's woman behind them.

That was all that could have been asked for.

* * *

Unlike the previous year, the date of the school prom didn't fall on any important date that could keep the family away from chaperoning duties at the dance. Also unlike the previous the year, and ultimately more importantly, Lissa had absolutely no desire to be one of the chaperones for the dance, because to her, the idea of dressing up and looking fabulous for a night of watching students was overshadowed by the fact that she was at the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy, and she had doubts that she would be able to make herself look halfway decent if she did decide to go.

Someone took the liberties of signing her up for the chaperone team without asking her, though, and she didn't find out about that until the day before the dance, when everyone who was supposed to go was given their assignment for what times they had to be actively watching the students. "I don't understand who would do this to me," she complained that night on the way home from the school, everyone else in the car not sure who put her name on the list. "Don't people understand that I might not want to go through this? I've kind of got other things happening that will make tomorrow night a disaster!"

"If it's any consolation, when I saw your name on the list of chaperones I was given, I made absolute sure that you got put with all of us," Chrom replied. "While I'm certain it wasn't anyone here who wished this upon you, I did my best to make sure that you'll be surrounded by people who will make your night better for the time you have to be there. That, of course, would be the three of us, since I know Robin and I volunteered because we figured you would be home to watch Lucina, and Vaike…er, I'm not actually sure why he volunteered."

"A couple kids in one of my classes dared me to do it. Said they'd run the mile blindfolded if they could get ol' Coach Vaike to show up at prom lookin' all cleaned up and such. Had to take 'em up on it." He wrapped his arm around Lissa's shoulder, pulling her in closer to him. "Guess this means that we'll just have'ta take the dance by storm, yeah?"

She gave a small nod. "I guess so. Although I really hope those students of yours don't expect us to stay the entire time, because I don't know if I'll be able to handle it. Are there even going to be places to sit down? Me standing in dressy shoes is not going to go over well."

"It'll go over better than you're thinkin' it will." Vaike pulled her in even closer. "You just gotta have faith in the moment."

She tried to squirm away from him, but he held her too tightly to allow it. "I wish I could have faith in the moment, but I don't think it's gonna work. How am I even going to make myself look good for the event with so little time before it? I mean, what are the chances that I'm going to be able to go out and find some nice dress that'll fit this?" She motioned to her stomach with one of her hands. "There's almost no way that I could do it, not tonight."

"I'm sure I've got something in one of those boxes that you could use. It might not be the classiest dress, but it'll be appropriate and you'll look fine in it." Robin looked back to Lissa, a smile on her face that quickly faded when she saw how unhappy the younger woman was with that idea. "What, you can't tell me that you don't like wearing my old clothes. It's saved you from having to spend so much money on a new wardrobe."

"I do appreciate it, but your clothes are meant for someone so much taller than me, and I doubt that whatever dress you have for me will be short enough that it won't touch the ground. The last thing I need is to trip over the hem of something and, well, hurt myself." Lissa sighed. "This is just going to be a horrible experience for me, and if I knew who decided they were going to put me through this torture, I would tell them that they are so not my friend anymore."

There was a flicker of panic in Vaike's face right then as he heard that, but he shook it off. "Nah, don't you worry about anything here, Lissa! You just worry about gettin' more beautiful than usual tomorrow, and it won't matter what you're wearin'. The Vaike'll still be proud to be with ya at the dance."

"You won't be proud to be with me once you see what sort of disaster I am." Giving another sigh, Lissa finally wormed her way out of Vaike's grasp and sat back up, rubbing at her belly a bit. "No, wait, you'll still be proud of me, but not because of how I look. You'll be proud of me because I'm your baby's mom, and because you love me."

He chuckled, masking the fact that another flicker of panic had overtaken him. "No way, Lissa. I could never be not proud of how ya look. You're the most gorgeous woman that this guy has ever seen, and, between you and me, I think you're even more gorgeous like this, mostly 'cause I look at'cha and I see not just you but li'l Owain too."

From in the front of the car, Chrom fake gagged. "Please, none of that sappy nonsense in the backseat of my car. I get it that you two are in love and all that, but I'd rather not be subjected to listening to your romantic talk, especially not when I'm driving." He was punched in the arm by Robin for that, and he grumbled something or other about how it wasn't fair that he couldn't control the conversation while he was driving, which only made her hit him again.

There was only going to be more grumbling throughout the house that night, and in the school the entirety of the next day, but instead of it being Chrom showing his displeasure, it was Lissa, who was just not okay at all with the situation she was unwillingly thrown into. For being someone who really enjoyed dances and social gatherings, it was odd for her to feel so much displeasure at being forced into going to one. She knew that her disdain was coming from the fact that she wasn't going to look as beautiful as she had always hoped that she would when she went to a school function not as a student, but it was so hard to ignore how upset she was about the matter. Her friends noticed, asking to make sure she was okay, and she told them all that she was perfectly fine, although her tone was more than enough to let them know she wasn't.

It was an early release day because of the prom that night, which thankfully meant that she had less time to be around people and exude her bad mood on everyone. However, that also meant that she had to go be back at the house, where the people she lived with would all be getting ready for having to be at the dance for the early chaperoning shift. She knew, when she walked in the front door, that she'd be expected to start getting ready too, but there was no desire within her to do that. Her and Robin had gone through countless boxes and found a dress that would work for the occasion, even if it did have a longer hem than Lissa had wanted, but it was something she could wear.

And then she walked into her bedroom and was greeted by a sight that she hadn't expected. Vaike was standing there, holding a dress that she had never seen before, one that looked like it was custom made for her. "W-where did that come from?" she asked, feeling out of breath as she did. "You didn't just go buy that, did you?"

"No way. Went and got this the day I signed your name on the list for chaperoning. Figured you wouldn't be happy about that, but once you saw this gown you'd love me for it." He handed the dress over to her, grinning as he did. "So there's that surprise ol' Vaike promised you back when he went shoppin' for Owain. Couldn't go out and spoil the baby without spoilin' the mom too."

"You jerk! This is so not okay!" Overcome with emotions, Lissa was crying as she looked at the pale yellow dress she had just been given. "You can't do something like this to me! You shouldn't have done this to begin with! I should have been asked before you signed me up for this, and then I should have been told you were gonna buy me something so nice! Vaike, where'd you even get the money for this?"

"That's not what's important here, is it? What you should be worryin' about right now is getting that on and being the beautiful woman you're meant to be tonight." He gave her two thumbs up, watching her eagerly nod her head as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Hey, none of that cryin' nonsense. Dry them tears and be happy about this. Tonight, you're gonna be the princess you've always deserved to be, and you'll have this guy," one of those thumbs turned to point at himself, "as your lovin' prince."

"Thank you for doing this for me," she managed to say, her voice wavering as she spoke, before she stepped closer to him, beckoning for him to bend down enough that she could kiss his cheek. Then she was heading off as fast as she could (which was not very fast at all, as every step she took was carrying a lot of extra weight with it), to show Robin the beautiful present she had been given, so that the two ladies could spend the next few hours dolling each other up.

By the time Chrom was standing by the front door in a collared shirt with a tie, waiting for everyone else to meet up with him, they had both been locked away in the bathroom, the hole in the door covered with a towel, and he wasn't even sure that they were going to be ready before they needed to leave. Even Vaike was standing there, looking less formal than Chrom was but still radically different than his usual self, and although the two guys didn't exactly see eye-to-eye, they were making small talk to pass the time spent waiting.

And then the women came out, showing off how much a few hours of work could change their appearances. Robin was wearing a long, dark gown that hugged her body tightly, giving the illusion that she had more curves than she usually did, with her long hair braided back and her makeup done as if she had asked a professional to do it for her. Since she walked out first, what she looked like was the first sight the two guys saw, causing Chrom to cover his mouth and his cheeks to light up. But then she stepped aside and Lissa made herself seen, and then it was Vaike's turn to start blushing like a madman.

"Do I look okay?" she asked, seeing her boyfriend's reaction and being unsure if he was turning red because he was impressed or because he was embarrassed on her behalf. "I do like the dress, but I don't think it looks that good on me…"

"Shush, he's not starting to babble like a fool because you look bad. You're gorgeous and we all know it," Robin told her in response, smiling at her. "Come on, you've got to admit to yourself that you look amazing, given the circumstances."

Lissa looked down at herself, the yellow fabric and sparkles that were covering her stomach preventing her from seeing the end of her dress in the front. "I don't know, all I can see is how I'm still big and ugly."

"Hold on, ugly?" Collecting himself enough to properly speak, Vaike ran over to be in front of her, grabbing hold of her hands and holding them tightly. "You aren't ugly. Big, yeah, can't say you're not that, but the Vaike has seen ugly, and you are not it. You're beautiful. Gorgeous. The greatest sight I've ever seen. And I don't wanna hear you bein' mean to yourself tonight, got it?"

"Got it, I guess." She looked up at him, a small smile on her face, allowing him to see the makeup job that Robin had done on her. He started babbling again when he saw just how much effort had gone into making her look so great, and she could have sworn that he was starting to cry when Chrom cleared this throat, signaling that it was time for them to go before they'd be late to their shift at the dance.

The shift they'd been given involved setting up and greeting the students as they arrived, a fun time to be had because of how many students were willing to compliment everyone on how they looked, taking a moment to especially remind Lissa that she was beautiful. By the time the dance was actually underway, she'd almost started crying several times, at how kind everyone was being to her, but she had managed to control herself because she didn't want to ruin the hard work that had been done on her makeup. It didn't stop her from tearing up a time or two, though, especially not when actual prom activities started and people were calling for her to join them on the dance floor, not so that she could dance but rather so that they could all dance around and celebrate her. It was weird, but at the same time it was very honoring, and that alone could have made her required time there worth it.

About midway through the dance was when the chaperones were supposed to switch out with their replacements, and she was shocked to realize that it was time for her to leave when she saw some of her friends coming in. The students wanted her to stay, even though she'd stopped being part of the action and had taken to watching from the sidelines, and so it was said that she, and anyone who had come with her, could stay and enjoy the night if they so wanted to. Clearly they all did, because the four of them hung around until way past when they were supposed to leave—a fact Lissa found odd, because she was just waiting for Chrom to get tired of being there, and it never happened.

The royalty of the dance was crowned, some assorted festivities took place, and then it came to be the part of the night where everyone grew tired, so the slow songs started. That was when a lot of the chaperones took to taking their companions out onto the floor, dancing amongst the students who didn't seem to really know how to handle a slow dance. She had started to grow bored with sitting and watching, so when Vaike came up to her and offered his hand for a dance, she accepted the offer, although she knew their height difference plus the fact that she was pregnant would cause nothing but problems for them.

In the end, it really didn't. He made sure to let her lead their movements, so that she was in complete control of what they were doing and so that she was only doing what she was comfortable with. That allowed her to get so wrapped up in their dancing that she didn't notice everyone around them slowly pulling off to the sides of the floor, stopping and watching them dance in each other's arms; it wasn't until they were the only people left dancing that she noticed something was going on. "Er, should we stop too?" she asked in a whisper, hoping he could hear her over the sound of the music. "I think maybe someone's gonna speak or something, and we're just in the way."

If he heard her, he didn't make any mention of it, but he did stop their movements to take a couple steps backward and look at her. That was when she saw that he was shaking a bit, a nervous smile on his face, and she took the chance to look around at the people who had surrounded them in a circle. Most of the faces she saw were excited students, but she did make sure to notice that Chrom had narrowed his eyes and was shaking his head at what was happening. When she locked eyes with her brother, his widened, before motioning with one hand for her to turn around, which she did, not sure why he would be telling her to do that.

Seeing a little ring in a tiny box right in her face was plenty of an answer as to why. The hands holding it were shaking wildly, and she just knew that if she tried looking at Vaike, he would be a complete mess, especially when he started talking and everyone could hear the nervousness in his voice. "So, uh, this probably ain't the way anyone wanted to see this happen, but there was no way I won't gonna do this here. Gotta ask the love of my life to marry me when she's looking her absolute finest, yanno? Not sure if you're gonna say yeah or not, but it's worth a shot." He cracked a smile at her, moving the ring box a bit closer to her. "Can't let our li'l Owain come into this world without his parents at least thinkin' about getting hitched at some point. It'd look bad."

"So y-you decided to hijack the school prom for this?" Lissa stammered, trying to figure out how she should react to the situation. No wonder Chrom had been shaking his head at what was about to happen. "You just want to make it hard for me to say no, don't you?"

"Please don't say no! That would be awkward, don't ya think? Not just 'cause everyone here watched you reject me, but because that would also mean we'd be raisin' a kid with no love between us, and the Vaike doesn't think he'd be able to handle that sort of thing." He was shaking more, getting more visibly upset at just the idea of her rejecting him. "So what d'ya say? Will you take this man to be your man for life?"

Her eyes rested on the ring for a moment, watching the lights of the dance reflecting off of it, before she nodded, earning a round of applause from almost everyone in the room. "I couldn't actually say no, even if I wanted to, you silly. There's something inside me that tells me that we've got to be together, and it just might not be our baby." That was when she grabbed the ring, trying to fit it on her finger but only getting it halfway down because of how small the little ring was (not to mention how insanely swollen her finger was). "I really love you, Vaike. And I'm so excited that you're wanting to spend forever with me, because I'm ready to spend forever with you."

Too happy and relieved to speak, he enveloped her in a giant hug, and the feel of his arms around her in that loving embrace was enough to cause her to start crying. For the rest of the night, she was a sniffling mess of emotions, a fact not helped by the amount of students and teachers who came up to her congratulating her on the engagement. The only person not to say anything about it was Chrom, and she knew why that was: he couldn't make himself be happy for his sister being happy, because her happiness involved Vaike.

Or, at least, that was what she thought. As he explained later that night when they were on their way home, he simply didn't say anything because there was too much he wanted to tell her. "If I had stayed silent because I didn't approve, do you really think I would have allowed him to do that in the first place? He wanted to stick to old traditions, by asking the male guardian in your life if it was okay to take your hand, and since I'm the only guardian you have, he had to get my permission. If I didn't want you two together, I would have done something about it a long time ago."

"You didn't want them together until they had a reason to stay together. Don't act like it was any other way," Robin teasingly said in return, before sighing deeply. "But still, it was rather refreshing to see some _real_ love in that place. All those students up on one another were just infatuated with the idea of touching, nothing more. Getting to see them see how true love works was a nice change of pace."

"Yes, which reminds me. Vaike, why did you choose to propose to her at the school prom? What even made you think that was a good idea?" Chrom turned for a second to look at the guy he was addressing, just to see him kissing Lissa. "Uh, you can stop kissing for a moment and answer me, can't you?"

They broke apart, and Vaike awkwardly pulled at the tie around his neck. "Got it, boss. Chose the prom because my students dared me to do it. Said they didn't expect me to be able to pull off a good 'promposal,' and I told 'em that Coach Vaike doesn't take challenges like that lightly. Think I proved 'em wrong."

"You know that 'promposals' aren't proposals at prom, right?" Lissa asked, covering her mouth to stifle a giggle. "While I'm totally honored that you chose to do it there, they just wanted you to ask me to the thing in some cute way. Which you never actually did, since you volunteered me without my permission!"

He gave a blank stare for almost a minute, blinking a few times as he processed what he had just heard. "You're tellin' me that I didn't even do what they asked?" She couldn't stop the giggles from coming then, as she indeed told him that he hadn't. "Well, looks like this coach is gonna be runnin' a fair number of laps on Monday. Can't go back on my losing agreement to that dare, even if what I did was better than what they wanted."

* * *

All anyone talked about at the school for days was the proposal that the aloof gym teacher had staged for the plucky sorta-nurse in the middle of the dance floor. It had been a pretty big moment for an otherwise tame prom, and so it was one of the only memorable things that had happened that was worth discussing more than just a little bit. For days, any time Lissa was anywhere but in her office, she was being approached and asked to show her ring, which she had taken to wearing on a chain around her neck for the moment, which then that question was always followed up with if she was happy with how things had turned out, and if there was anything she would have changed about the moment.

Out loud, she'd say that there wasn't, but inside she knew that there was. If it had been up to her, there would have been a proposal and a wedding long before there was ever a baby in the situation, but they had done things a bit out of order and that was okay. She was ultimately happy with how things were going, and she knew that Vaike was too, which was all that mattered in the end.

The talk about that proposal came to an abrupt halt later that week, when something even more exciting happened, this time in the school building where everyone was able to know about it without having to have paid for a ticket to be there. Most of the older students who had a class taught by Miriel knew that she had been coming to school to teach against the wishes of any medical official she visited, because she had reached the point in her pregnancy where she should have been just sitting at home, waiting for the arrival of her child, but she was set in her ways and wanted to teach her classes until the last possible day.

No one was exactly okay with this decision that she had made, but she insisted that when the time came she would be in the comfort of her own home, not anywhere near the school, and that there was nothing to worry about. So when, one day that week after the days before it had been full of proposal talk, everyone's conversations turned to discussing how they were pretty sure that the strict science teacher was going to start giving birth in her classroom, it was only slightly concerning. No matter how many times kids came to Lissa's office to tell her about this rumor, she couldn't do anything about it, because she had promised Miriel that she wouldn't unnecessarily get involved with things.

That meant, when it was the science teacher herself standing at the office door, swaying slightly as she stood, that it was completely necessary for Lissa to be involved. She was thankful that she wasn't alone in her office when Miriel showed up, because if she had been forced to run and grab everyone she needed on her own, it might just have ended up with both the ladies being in labor there at the school. But it happened to be the off-period for several teachers at that time, and they had come down to Lissa's office to sit with her for the hour. "Okay, uh, I think I need you guys to run and get some people for me," she said, trying to take control of the situation the best she could. "If that's okay, of course. I don't mean to worry you with barking orders or anything."

"Just say the word and we'll be on our damn way." Sully, watching as Lissa rather hurriedly got Miriel to sit on the table, made her way towards the door. "Guessing that I should go get your brother, huh?"

"Yes, you go get Chrom! He's got the level head here, and he'll know what to do!" That was when Lissa turned to see that the redhead was already headed out the door, so she yelled the arguably most important part of the message: "And make sure to make it very clear that it _isn't_ me having the baby in here!" She then turned to see Frederick still sitting where he had been the whole time, his face locked in an "I told you so" sort of expression aimed at Miriel. "And you! Please, go get Robin and tell her that she's needed down in the science classroom right away! I'm sure she'll guess why, but tell her if you need to!"

"Understood. She will know as soon as I can find her." He got up and headed towards the door as well, his parting words being ones of good luck to them both before he was gone, letting the door latch behind him.

Lissa got to focus only on Miriel then, knowing that everything else would be hopefully taken care of by her friends. "So, what happened to you insisting this wouldn't happen?" she asked, not sure what else there was that she could say. "I thought you knew how all of this was going to go down, and you were going to not be here for it."

"It was a miscalculation on my part, and I greatly apologize for it. Statistical averages are no golden rule, something I should have kept in mind when I came to teach today knowing that every minute that passed was one closer to the time when I would be rendered incapable of doing much more than what I am doing now." Miriel looked to the clock that sat above Lissa's desk, doing a quick calculation in her mind. "We are still in no sort of a danger zone, but the timing between contractions is growing shorter, which is indicative of—"

"I know what that means!" Covering her mouth after her outburst, Lissa knew she'd have to apologize a bunch to make up for snapping like that at someone in a moment of need. "Sorry, sorry, I've just had to hear so much about that lately that it's angering to hear it again."

"Then I will skip details and inform you that there really is not much for you to do here except keep me company until my ride gets here." The older woman took a shallow breath, clearly biting down on her lip as she did. "I am aware that your brother will insist that I find a ride in someone else, but I refuse to leave here unless it is my spouse driving me. He must be present for whatever happens, you see."

The door was flung open and Chrom came running in, out of breath. "First off, which one of you is trying to make this place into a birthing room?" To answer his question, Lissa pointed at Miriel, who gave a small wave, and he seemed to relax a bit. "Less stressful for me, but still not okay. This is why you should have taken off when I suggested for you to."

"Chrom, you had suggested for me to take my leave over a month ago, while I was still in prime teaching form. The way I approached things was in a way more tailored to how I wanted things to go. I am not one to find enjoyment in idle waiting, therefore I kept teaching until I could no longer." She was clearly uncomfortable, fidgeting with her hands in whatever ways she could, and he took note of that, reaching for the phone, which she noticed. "Please, do not dial anyone. Someone will be here soon to escort me where I need to go, and that is all I need."

"I don't think I'm supposed to allow that," he said, dropping his arm back to his side, "but since you've shown your stubbornness by letting this happen, I guess I'll let it slide. He's going to be here soon, correct?"

She gave a small nod. "I informed him as I was coming down here that the time was upon us. Where he was at that moment, I am unsure, but it should not be very long before he comes in looking for me."

"Then I think I'll hang around the front desk, waiting for him to come in." Chrom gave his sister a quick hug before he left, but once he was gone, it was just Lissa and Miriel in the office, and neither of them really had much to say to the other. Miriel was much too focused on trying to keep her composure, and Lissa was trying to wrap her head around how someone could even manage to keep calm in that situation. She knew that, if it were her up on the table in the throes of labor, she'd be screaming and crying, regardless of if she were in pain or not, and because of how collected Miriel was, she was feeling a little bit of admiration for her friend.

By the time the office door opened again, nearly two hours had passed, and things had gone far beyond where they had been. No longer calm, Miriel was clutching a pillow to her chest, her face buried in it whenever she felt the need to scream in pain from the strong contractions she was experiencing. Lissa wasn't trained in any sort of baby-rearing, but she could tell that if something didn't happen soon, there was a high chance that she'd be getting to experience helping deliver a child there in that office. But when the door opened and Chrom came back in, followed by a burly guy that Lissa had only ever seen in pictures before, she knew that it was the end of the road for the current adventure.

"Miriel! Dear heart! Everything is alright?" The newcomer spoke in a thick Germanic accent, and his broken language was enough to show that he wasn't a native speaker of the language he was using, but the way he rushed to his wife's side showed that he did know what was going on. Whatever response he was given, it certainly wasn't in any language that Lissa knew, and so she wasn't really sure what Miriel was saying to him, but he was eagerly nodding along with her words.

"I think I lost what was happening from the moment he came in here," Lissa whispered to Chrom, who was watching the married couple's interactions with a similar level of confusion as his sister was. "Do you think he's understanding what's going on?"

"The way they're talking, I'm sure he is. From what I've learned about him, he may not be the best at speaking to everyone, but the conversations they hold together are something else." Breaking from his whisper, Chrom asked out loud, "Is it time for you two to get out of here, or did we invite Gregor here to just talk?"

Miriel carefully swung her feet around the table a bit to get into a better position. "We were discussing the best method to handle everything from here. I thank you two for your assistance in this situation, and we will be sure to update you as soon as we can. For now, though, we shall be making our leave."

"Yes, making leave now. Much to do today." The man (Chrom had referred to him as Gregor, hadn't he?) gave a hearty laugh. "Like birth firstborn." At that, he bent down, scooping his arms underneath Miriel and lifting her up, so that he could carry her out of the room.

Chrom opened the door so that they could go, and once they were out he motioned for Lissa to come with him. "We're at least going to see them on their way, just to make sure they get to their vehicle safely," he explained, and his sister, looking at her table and vividly visualizing what had just happened on it, decided that it would be best to follow him. They walked several steps behind the couple, although at the same pace as them, which allowed for them to keep listening to the foreign conversation the couple was having. "Those two are such an odd pair, don't you think?"

"I don't know, I think they're really cute together!" Lissa put her hands to her cheeks and smiled. "Except I totally see why people say that he could be her dad. Is that what you mean by odd? Or the part where they talk in a language we don't understand?"

"I just meant in general. You didn't need to get into specifics." He playfully pushed her arm, and she hit him back in response. "Hey, no need for violence. As the guy in charge of you, I'm telling you to knock that off while we're here. Beating on your brother can wait until we're not at the school."

"Oh, whatever. You pushed me first." The two bickered back and forth a bit more as they walked, until they got to see what they had set off for; once the car the couple was in was disappearing in the distance, they started their walk back to Lissa's office. She was much more silent on the walk back, something he called attention to by asking her what was on her mind. "Nothing, nothing. Just me thinking about how close of a call that might have been in there. There's not much I can do when it comes to babies, you know."

Nodding, Chrom set his arm on his sister's shoulders. "I do know. That's something you've always made a point to mention whenever you're around someone who's having one. Except yourself, I've noticed."

"Me having a baby's really different than watching someone else have one." She pushed his arm off of her, just for him to put it back and draw her closer to him. "I can't be responsible for having to tell myself what to do when it's time, you know. That's someone else's job. But if Miriel had needed to actually give birth in my office, that would have been on my shoulders. It just worries me that someday I'll actually have to know what to do, and I think I need to learn how to do it."

"Hey, don't worry about that now, got it?" Chrom ruffled his sister's hair a bit, grabbing one of her pigtails and pulling it. "After you've had your ki—I mean, after you've had Owain, you can worry with that, but for now, I don't need you stressing out about anything. Period."

"Nice catch, but I hear you. I'll keep my mind off of needing to learn those skills until after I've actually been through that experience." She smiled at him, as wide and sincere as she could, and he returned the favor. That was all he could ask for from his sister, to not stress out and cause problems for herself, and she knew exactly why that was, an unspoken fear he'd possessed from that night he had found out about this baby. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened with his wife and daughter, and she wasn't going to put him through that a second time, not if she could help it.

* * *

 **A/N: Hard to believe that there's only one chapter left after this. :c Since I will be on a car trip for the entirety of next Monday, that means that the final chapter of this fic will be posted next Sunday instead. I hope you look forward to it!**


	9. Another Graduation

The first few lunches after Miriel's departure, the group she had acquired in the teachers' lounge sat elsewhere, mostly Lissa's office, so that their lunch experience wasn't overshadowed by people asking questions about what had happened with Miriel. They as a collective whole knew more than almost anyone else working in the school, but there had been some things they had been told in secrecy, like the name and specific statistics about her newborn son, and those were the things everyone wanted to know.

By the middle of the following week, lunch in the office wasn't as fun as it had been before, not after some kid came in while throwing up and put a damper on the conversation the teachers and Lissa were having. They had to move back to the lounge for this sort of meeting, they knew, but how were they going to be able to do that without being grilled over their friend's situation to the millionth degree? There had to be something to happen that would take everyone's minds off of the near-birth that had happened at the school, and if it could be something new and fresh that wouldn't call back to the proposal that had happened before that, everyone would have appreciate that too.

Taking matters into his own hands, Stahl promised that he would create something so great that it would get everyone talking about it rather than the recent events. "Yeah, we know how well that's going to go over, you damn fool," Sully said to him, reaching up to his messy hair and grabbing a large handful of it to tug a few times. "But do this right, however the hell you plan on doing it, and I might reward you somehow. Might."

"I was going to do this just for the good of everyone, but if your reward includes food…" He blinked a few seconds, stunned that he had even considered taking up the brash woman's offer. "I mean, I'm doing it anyway! Your food reward doesn't mean a thing."

"Don't bribe him into doing this, Sully. We need him to be thinking clearly, and if his mind's on what sort of expensive dinner date you might take him on after this, he won't be focusing on his plan at all." Frederick, stopping Sully from tugging more at Stahl's hair, shook his head. "In fact, I don't think he's focusing on anything but the food reward now."

Stahl put a finger up as if he was going to make a point, but lowered it when it dawned on him that Frederick was right. "I-I'm going to go now. I've got a lot to get ready for this thing, and I can't let myself get distracted by pretty ladies promising me food." He got up from his seat on the edge of the office table and ran out the door, leaving everyone behind in the office to stare at one another.

"What the hell just happened there?" Sully's face was locked in an expression of almost rage as she spoke. "I never promised a food reward! Damn it, that man is going to eat me out of my rent money for the month! Whatever he pulls off to get us back into the lounge without answering questions we don't want to be asked, it better be worth that sacrifice."

"Knowing him, it's probably gonna involve him gettin' his students to bake cakes. That, or he's gonna try it himself and eat all the batter again." Vaike laughed, remembering the last time cakes had been made back in that corner classroom. "Hopefully he's plannin' something special, like a party or maybe a feast, yanno? A feast would be awesome."

"Let's not get hypothetical over this. One of Stahl's feasts requires ample planning and as far as we know, he started planning this today. It will, sadly, most likely be the cakes again, which is not a bad thing, but it won't save us from questioning when we walk back into the lounge." Frederick looked at Vaike, who had still been laughing after he had finished speaking but had gone silent at the grim reality that it was once again going to be time for cakes. "I feel the same way as you, though. His feasts were something to behold when we were students here, and he has only gotten better at designing them."

"Last time ol' Vaike was part of one of 'em was back at the senior dinner 'fore we graduated. Kinda wish it was gonna be one of those that he surprised all of us with, but I get it, bakin' and eatin' the batter is easier than making meals for everyone." There was actual, audible sadness in Vaike's voice talking about the feasts, which only made Lissa curious about how great they really were, if her fiancé was wanting one so badly and if Frederick was using a word like "sadly" when referring to the alternate option.

She would get to find out soon enough, on the day where she got to work and found an envelope taped to her door, her name written on it in almost illegible handwriting. When she opened it and something she recognized as one of those dollar store thank-you cards came out, she smiled, because chances were that what she now held was a message from a student who meant well. The card, though, was an invite to the teachers' lounge that day at lunch, to come with nothing but an empty stomach, because what would be waiting there would gladly fill it. For the first half of the day, Lissa had to restrain herself from digging into what she had brought herself for lunch, simply because she didn't want to spoil her appetite for whatever was waiting in the lounge. But she couldn't fully restrain herself, because to do so would require not giving herself any sort of nutrition for her baby to inevitably sap from her, and the last thing she wanted to do was get lightheaded or faint in the school.

By the time the lunch hour was upon them, she'd managed to resist eating most of her own lunch, only having picked out a couple things to snack on, so when Vaike came by to walk with her down to the lounge, she wasn't as shaky as she could have been, but she was still pretty unstable. "Sorry, I tried to follow his advice of going with an empty stomach," she explained, leaning up against Vaike to keep her balance as they walked, "but I don't think it was a very good idea."

"You shoulda known that you didn't need to follow that rule. Now you're just wobblin' and waddlin' and it's gonna take us forever to get down there." She gasped and smacked him, which in turn caused him to stop their forward motion. "Hey, what was that for? Somethin' I said just then?"

"Yes! Now I'm going to be super paranoid about people watching me walk and making fun of me! You shouldn't have mentioned me _waddling_ , you jerk!" Smacking him again, they both found a reason to laugh after, because she really was taking offense to something she had known she did for several months. "Let's just get down there so I can actually eat something, please and thank you."

He wasn't one to deny her what she wanted, so they started walking again, eventually getting to the lounge door, which was already open. He peeked inside and based on the low whistle he gave, was clearly impressed. "This might just look better than the last one 'a these he did around here. C'mon in, there's probably enough feast to last a lifetime!"

"I think you're exaggerating a bit," Lissa said, but she followed Vaike's lead into the room and was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't exaggerating much at all. Every surface in the room, aside from a couple of the tables, was covered in different dishes. There were a lot of teachers milling around, picking this-or-that from the dishes before leaving the lounge with their meals, no questions asked, period. "Or maybe not. How did he manage this one?"

"Sully must've put a fire under him when she mentioned a reward. Stahl really likes his food, and he'll do anything for it. Kinda like how the Vaike'll do anything for his lady love." He planted a quick kiss on her cheek, before they made their way to start getting their own plates of food. There were so many things to pick between, getting it all to fit on their plates was hard, but somehow they managed, and once they had everything they were sitting down at a table with some of their friends, one of which was the man who put everything together.

"You guys look like you're impressed," Stahl commented when he saw the plates of food all of his friends had before them. "Like, really impressed. I think I did a good job with this one, huh? Worthy of a reward of a nice dinner?"

The woman who had never exactly promised him that rolled her eyes. "I guess so. Food's tasty, people aren't talking to us about things we don't need to talk about, it's all perfect. Looks like you're going to get that, er, damn dinner I guess I offered you."

"I like the sound of that! I'll be up at your place tomorrow night then, so think about what you're going to do for me!" He looked so excited, even when he saw that Sully wasn't even sharing a bit of his enthusiasm.

"I'm curious, Stahl. Where did you find the funds to put this together?" Frederick, taking a moment between bites of his meal, looked to the man responsible for everything with a curious glance. "Feeding a small army like this must take a lot of money."

"Uh, I don't think I'm actually supposed to say where the money came from for this. It's a secret between me and someone else. Could lose my job if I shared it." He awkwardly chuckled, trying to find something to change the topic to. "So, anyone want to hear about what I made for the dessert course?"

That night, when on the car ride home, Lissa could have sworn she smelled the fragrant aromas of the teachers' lounge inside the car, but when she brought it to attention everyone seemed to ignore her. Had she gotten so attached to the tastes of what she had gotten to dine on that she was imagining the smell? It wasn't a question she'd be able to answer, and it was going to bother her—until later that same night when she went to grab herself something to snack on from the fridge and found entire containers of leftovers from the feast, easily enough to feed the family for a week.

Robin caught her going through some of the containers and had to put a stop to it. "I can't let you do that, Lissa," she said, trying to convince the younger woman to put everything back where she had found it. "Those things are for your brother, not for you."

"Chrom doesn't need all of this," Lissa replied, refusing to stop her searching. "He can learn to share a bit, can't he?"

"He can, but since the entire reason this was allowed to happen in the first place was me reminding him that, for the first year he and I were married, he would constantly compare my food to Stahl's, I don't think he's going to want to share." A mischievous glimmer in her eye, Robin took everything Lissa had and put it back where it belonged. "Now please do me a favor and don't go through that again. Chrom will have our heads if he doesn't get to eat feasts for as long as possible."

Lissa sighed in defeat. "Yeah, but he's at least gotten to have feasts before this. I hadn't, and it was really good. Can't I have a little bit?" She held up two fingers placed closely together to symbolize how little she wanted. "It's not just for me, but for baby Owain too, you know."

"I know, but I can't let you. If you want something so badly…" Robin looked around the kitchen, trying to find a suitable suggestion for a substitution. "Oh! You can have some of the cake that Stahl let us bring home. He insisted it wasn't touched, and that it's a full cake, but something tells me that he couldn't stop himself from eating half of it. It's kind of small."

From in the living room on the other side of the wall, Vaike could be heard losing his mind in laughter over the accusation of Stahl eating part of one of his cakes.

* * *

With as slowly as the semester had started, it came rushing to a close, and with the end of classes came the tradition-filled graduation ceremony that took so much planning and effort to put together. Like the year before, the votes for who should give the speeches at the ceremony fell in a predictable way, but this time Chrom wasn't going to be able to fall back on some rule that would keep his sister from having to take the stage at some point. She had rightfully received the most votes for almost every speech, and that meant she was going to give one, barring some catastrophe.

And she was fairly convinced that some catastrophe was just begging to happen. "I get it that they want me to do this, because some of them knew me when I went to school and for those who don't, I'm still a cool part of the school, but I really don't think that this is going to work out." As Chrom had told her the news that she was going to be giving a speech, Lissa had been trying to get her graduation gown on, and by the time she had said anything she had already ripped one of the sides of it. "Mostly because I'm so going to trip and fall and hurt myself if I have to get on stage, but partially because I won't be wearing what I'm supposed to be. Do you really want me up there in something that isn't my gown?"

"No, but the students asked, and if I deny them this request they will most definitely revolt." He looked at his sister, with her clearly ripped gown on, and shook his head. "You should have considered something like this when you decided to have that baby."

"His name is Owain, remember? And it wasn't like I planned to have him." Lissa, struggling then to get the gown off without ripping it more, gave a deep sigh. "Nice to hear that you still aren't okay with him existing, though. He's not even the problem here, it's just everything that goes along with having him is the problem." Sighing again, she let the gown hang back down, the front of it clearly straining against her stomach. "If I were just a little smaller, this would be okay…"

"I think that makes him the problem, Lissa." He shook his head at his sister, before helping her get the gown off, only ripping it minimally more in the process. "But okay, let's just blame everything that's happened to you on something else. Vaike, perhaps? Would me blaming this on him make it better, or worse?"

She balled the gown up and threw it at him. "Equally bad, actually. Don't insult either of the guys I love, please, not when there's more important things to be worrying about right now. Like how we're going to find something that isn't just ugly maternity clothing for me to wear on stage when I give the students the speech they want." Her eyes widened in fear. "Wait, what kind of speech am I even giving? One of the ones they write?"

"Right now, let's worry about finding something for you to wear. If we can't find anything, I've got no choice but to pick someone else for the job." Laughing at having had the ripped gown thrown at him, he threw it back at his sister, hitting her in the face. When it connected, he covered his mouth in shock. "I didn't mean to do that. Meant to hit the wall or for it to sail past you, but not to hit you."

For a moment, she stood in silence, before breaking into giggles. "You're really bad at not hurting or breaking things, and I'm glad you chose my face to hit rather than something you could have broken." She then turned serious about the situation at hand. "Okay, so, finding a gown that could fit me shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean, mine was super small because I was super small, but now I'm not even close to small, and that means I need to find a gown that was made for someone really big but really short."

"That's not going to happen in the time we have before the ceremony, but I think if we can find one belonging to someone who's always been built fairly sturdily, we'll be fine." Chrom's eyes darted to the closet in the room. "Did Vaike put his stuff in there when he moved in? I'm sure his graduation gown would work in this pinch. His broad shoulders would have made him need a bigger one, and while it would be too long, we could find a way to pin it up, I bet. Robin's usually got some creative fix for that."

"He did put his stuff in the closet, but I wouldn't go through there if I were you. He's been stashing some more 'secret' stuff from me lately, all for surprises he's planning." She too looked to the closet. "But this is sort of a thing we need to do now, and I don't know where he is, so go for looking for it."

"You don't know where he is?" There was concern in his voice as he asked, and when she repeated that she didn't, he took a deep breath. "Let's hope that his gown is in there, and that he doesn't get back soon. If you're sure there's stuff you aren't meant to see, leave the room, and I'll come let you know if I find it."

She saw no reason why that wasn't a good idea, and so she slowly made her way out of her bedroom and out into the living room, collapsing onto the couch once she got there. "I don't know how I'll even manage standing on stage for a speech," she said to herself, shaking her head a bit. "I'm not exactly built for this sort of thing. Small and skinny ladies don't make very sturdy pregnant women." For the next half hour, she just sat there, occasionally psyching herself up about how she'd be able to handle giving a speech, before reminding herself of all what could go wrong with the situation, and ultimately just spending most of the time thinking about how, even after the past months of being told to refer to her baby by his name, Chrom still didn't do that sometimes. Was she angry about that? Not exactly, but she wasn't happy about it in the slightest.

She was broken from her thoughts when the front door opened, and running into the house came little Lucina, what was left of an ice cream cone in her hand (and all over her face). "Auntie Lissa, I got a cone!" she squealed, jumping onto the couch and pushing the cone remnants into Lissa's face. "I got a cone for you!"

"It looks more like you _had_ a cone for me, Lucy. Did you eat it?" The little girl insisted that she hadn't, contrary to the mess on her face and the fact that her cone was almost completely gone. "I don't know, little miss, it looks like you're lying to me."

"She ain't. That was hers that she's carryin' around still." Both Lissa and Lucina turned to see who spoke, and Vaike grinned when he saw them looking at him. He was holding an uneaten cone in one hand, and one that was partially gone in the other. "We might've found an ice cream truck while we were out at the park, and she was so excited 'bout it that she convinced me to buy her a cone, me a cone, and you a cone too."

"Yeah!" Shoving what was left of hers in her mouth, Lucina started bouncing up and down on the couch, watching as Vaike handed off the untouched cone to Lissa, before she started eagerly watching her aunt eat a small bit of what she was given. "Gotta have ice cream! Baby Owain likes it, right?"

Lissa shrugged, loving her niece's enthusiasm about things but also unsure of how she could even answer that. Thankfully, she had Vaike there to answer for her. "I told ya already, Lucy, he likes whatever his momma there likes. Since she likes ice cream, I betcha anything he does too."

"She likes me. So he likes me too?" Lucina bounced a bit more, nearly falling off the couch in the process, which in turn made both Lissa and Vaike try to catch her. This, in conjunction with them both holding ice cream cones, meant that there was soon a mess to clean up, although only one of the two cones landed on the floor. The second one, which had been dropped simply where it had been held and landed upside-down on the top of Lissa's stomach, earned a lot of amused laughter from Lucina when she saw it. "He does like ice cream! Look!"

"What's all this about ice cream out here?" Chrom asked, coming into the room to see the messes, and his daughter shrieked at the sight of him. "Whatever it is, it better not involve someone having given her some. Last thing we need is for her to be losing her mind because of all the sugar."

"Sorry 'bout that, got so caught up in her excitement that ol' Vaike forgot he won't supposed to give her anything." Too busy looking at where his cone had dropped, on the hardwood floor, to look and see if Chrom was disappointed in his decision, Vaike sighed. "Probably shoulda thought this one through a bit better. Note to self, don't try to grab the fallin' kid with the hand holdin' the ice cream."

"You and I both need to learn that lesson," Lissa said with a laugh, pointing to where her cone had landed. "I mean, I shouldn't have reached for her anyway, but still. Now we've both got messes to clean up." The tone she spoke with was a hint to him to go get something to clean with, and once he was gone in search of something he could use, she turned to look at Chrom, who was holding a bigger gown than the one she'd been trying on before. "You actually found it, huh?"

"Took maybe a minute, tops. He put it in the back. Most of the time I spent in there was comparing this to some of your clothes, and I think it'll work. You might look ridiculous in it, because it's longer than you are tall, but you'd look more ridiculous if you walked on stage wearing the one you ripped open." He chuckled, before taking a seat next to his sister and having an ice cream-covered Lucina sit on his lap. "Now, while we wait for him to clean up the mess he's made, let's start discussing this speech thing."

Lissa gave a small, hesitant smile. "Yeah, probably for the best. You didn't say which one I'd be giving. Please don't tell me that I'm giving my own speech." She looked at him for the reaction she wanted, but the way he was awkwardly scratching the back of his head told her otherwise. "They want me to go up there and make a huge fool of myself, don't they?"

"To be fair, I think they want to hear you talk about how life can change quickly after graduation. Give them a speech that lets them know that whatever they're planning, they can most likely kiss it goodbye once they leave the school for the last time." Chrom grabbed Lucina, being careful to not touch anywhere she was sticky, and drew her close to his chest. "The same thing happened for both of us. We left that place just to get taken back by circumstance, and then our lives changed with children. I really think they need to hear about that sort of thing."

They kept talking about how that would make a good topic for the speech, having to clue Vaike into what was happening when he came back into the room with his cleaning supplies. He was thrilled that his fiancée would be getting to give a speech, although he first did express a fear about her possibly tripping while getting up onto the stage (something Chrom responded to by asking, "Is her climbing stairs really that big of a problem?" and they both said that it really was). And so, with the three of them, plus Lucina's inputs of needing to talk about her baby cousin, and eventually Robin coming in and offering her advice, a speech was concocted and penned, ready to be delivered at the graduation ceremony at the end of the week.

It was a foregone conclusion that Lissa would end up crying at some point during the graduation, not like the previous year when she saw one of her best friends graduate, but just at any point. That point came when Chrom started the ceremony, and she wasn't sure why that was, because he was giving the same introduction he did every year—until he began talking about Emmeryn, that was. The tears came harder then, as he listened to him get choked up at the microphone as he talked about how much his sister had meant to the school, and since it had been five years since her passing, it was time to do something big to honor her. "Over the summer, a statue in Emmeryn's honor will be constructed in the school commons, so that students decades from now can know the woman who gave them their education opportunity," he said, looking out on everyone in the auditorium to see reactions. People who had known her were nodding in approval, some were wiping back tears, and then there was Lissa, sitting in the first row of teachers and staff, bawling her eyes out, tears staining the front of her cream-and-green gown. "I think, after mentioning one sister, that this would be a good time to hand things off to the other. Lissa, could you please take the stage for your speech?"

That wasn't how or when she had expected her contribution to be introduced, and the round of applause that greeted her as she stood and slowly made her way to the front of the room, carefully ascending the stairs onto the stage, and approached the podium caught her wildly off guard. She was still crying when she got there, and she hoped that her voice wouldn't be shaking when she tried to give her speech. "Thank you, Chrom," she started, giving a smile to her brother as he passed her the microphone before taking his seat. "And thank you, everyone who asked for me to be up here today on this special occasion. It's a real honor, to be told you're giving a speech at a graduation two years after you were up on the very same stage getting your diploma. An honor I wasn't sure I was going to want."

The crowd gave a collective laugh, and she stepped out from behind the podium, trying to keep her walking from looking more like wobbling as she headed towards one of the sides of the stage. "Well, you know, I first had to ask myself, 'why do they want me giving a speech? I'm not a teacher.' But then I realized, I know exactly why you want to hear me speak! It's not because I have anything smart to say, but because I've done so much memorable stuff in my two years working here!" Reaching the edge, she looked out on half the people at the ceremony—and was shocked to see Ricken, Maribelle, and Donnel sitting in the crowd, all waving wildly at her. She had known that the first two were home from school, and the third would be back from the farm to see them, but she hadn't known they'd be there, and the only reason they really had to be there was to hear her speech. "I-I mean, how many of the new graduates really remember me from when I was a student? Raise your hands if you do."

The hands that raised were few and far between. "And raise your hand if you know me just because of me doing my job." A few more hands went into the air. "See, I'm not memorable because of being me. But if I asked if you knew me because of what happened at prom, I'm sure almost all of you would say that you did. That's okay, because I think I'd rather be remembered for the fun stuff than my job, especially since I'm just some medical tech who's meant to only be used in _emergencies_. Did you know that? 's part of my official title. But I work like I'm a nurse, which I'm not! I wanted to be one, though.

"You can ask some people who are here today if that's true, by the way." Starting to walk towards the other edge of the stage, Lissa took a deep breath before starting on the part of the speech she was looking least forward to: the part where she would probably make herself start crying again. "One of my friends, he'll tell you about how I told him I'd become a nurse—well, more specifically, one meant to work with children, just so that I could help women in need. And that was my dream! I wanted to go to school, to become someone who could help women and their babies out. If present me could go back three years and tell past me that there was no way that was going to happen, past me would probably slap present me. That's how serious I was about wanting to chase that dream.

"I was fifteen when my sister died, which was when the 'nurse' part of the dream started. Would I have saved Emmeryn if I had medical skills? No, because no one knows how she died. But I could have tried." She sniffled, and the crowd seemed captivated by what she was saying, a good sign. "At that time, I was living with my brother and his best friend at their place, because I was still in school and they were both in college. I'm not going to get into Chrom's story here, because I'm sure everyone knows it, but when Emmeryn died, he had to take her role here at this school, which meant he didn't have time for his own education. I always told myself, I wasn't going to do what he did and stop going to school. I was going to follow my education dreams and become successful in life. But then, after I graduated from this very school, Chrom came to me, telling me that he had a job for me here, that I could work here with just a little bit of education and a summer of classes, and everything would be fine. I totally believed him."

"As you should have," she heard him say, and she turned from looking at the crowd to see him smiling at what she was saying. "It was the best decision for you."

"It wasn't me going to school to be a nurse, but I sort of became this school's nurse, and that was fine with me. There's always time later for chasing my dreams. Except then I fell in love. Hard. A story none of you students need reminding of, because you've been there for all of it. You've heard Vaike talking about me in his classes. You've seen me wobbling through the halls because we're having a baby." She had to pause there for the clapping and cheering that made it impossible for her to keep talking, her face lit up in a huge smile at hearing how much support they had, and when she looked to Vaike she saw that he was grinning bigger than she was. "And I don't need to mention this, but you were there when he proposed to me, and I accepted it. You students were just as much a part of our love story as anything, and I have to thank you for that.

"I also have to tell you that none of this was what I saw myself experiencing when I was still a student here. Your life changes so much when you graduate that you need to stay on your toes. Don't get too invested in what you think you want to do, because something will come along and change your plans forever." Walking back to the podium, she knew she had one last thing she was going to say to these students with the time that she had, and she was going to make the best of it: "And finally, whatever you do, don't think it's a good idea to have a baby young. Just trust me, and my brother, on that one."

The applause that followed was deafening, and she was taken so much by surprise by it that she started crying tears of joy as she handed the microphone back to Chrom, and he hugged her tightly for a few moments, telling her how great she did and how everything had gone perfectly. The rest of the ceremony, she couldn't focus on what was going on around her, because her mind was too filled with the reactions to her speech, but even in her most distracted of states she didn't miss when, halfway through the students taking the stage for their diplomas, a familiar little girl ran up in between someone's legs, disrupting everything just to cling to her father. It earned laughter, but mostly it made Chrom turn bright red as he tried to handle what was going on.

After the ceremony was over, Lissa hung back in the auditorium, even after most everyone had left. She just sat in one of the chairs, reflecting on what had happened so far in her time since she had graduated—something that she felt she should do after openly talking about things. "Are you ever going to join everyone?" she heard Maribelle's voice asking, and she looked up from the spot on the floor to see both her and Ricken standing there, arms linked with one another. "Come on, just because you've had a long night doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to enjoy the festivities."

"Yeah, if you stay in here, you're going to miss Maribelle ripping Frederick's arms off if she gets the chance," Ricken added, earning himself a death glare from the woman he was linked with. "It's true. You said you'd do that to him if you got the chance after he stood you up over spring break."

"I am aware of what I said, Ricken dear, but that was meant to be between you and me, not you, me, and Lissa. Although if she heard why I want to remove his arms, I'm sure she wouldn't judge too much." That was enough bait for Lissa to bite, and Maribelle seemed almost happy to share her story. "If you want to know, he and I had agreed to try some sort of relationship after that failure of a date, and we attempted it for well over a year. It seemed innocent enough, just communicating through messages and phone calls, but then over spring break he offered to meet up with me since I would be home. I went to the meeting place and he never showed up! I put on my nicest dress and everything for him!"

Lissa's eyes widened. "Why did you never tell me you were actually trying to get with him? I could have told you forever ago that he has a girlfriend." Mentally she added in mention of a child too, but the mere topic of another woman had to have been bad enough.

"I think the correct word would be 'had,' Lissa, because I found out he had been using me as a romantic out from her and did the moral thing. I contacted her and let her know that she had been dating a cheater, and that was the end of that. She promised me that her and their precious child—poor thing, being fathered by a disgusting man like that—would be leaving as soon as they could." Maribelle smiled, causing Lissa to widen her eyes even more at the revelation. "And now if I get the chance, that man's arms are being taken as a war prize."

"Want to help me in restraining her?" offered Ricken, as he started getting tugged away by Maribelle. "I think together we could keep her from him. Donny said he was gonna help out, but you know how his mom is, wanting him home to help with the chickens or whatever."

Contemplating that for just a second, Lissa carefully stood up and linked her arm in Maribelle's open one. "I don't know how much help me and my gigantic belly are going to be here, but I think I've got a plan for how we'll make this work out. That'll be by finding a few people we could talk to." Her desire to leave the nearly empty room finally there, she slowly led them through the throng of people outside to find everyone she was wanting to talk to still standing around, not really doing much. While they did have to restrain Maribelle a bit when they saw Frederick off in the distance, when he was spotted also happened to be when one of the few people Lissa hoped to see also became visible.

It wasn't Lissa who called attention to that person, though. "Is that miss Miriel?" Ricken asked, pointing with his free hand at the tall redhead holding a child in her arms. "And did she have a _baby_?"

"Yeah, that's definitely her! Come on, we've got to go say hi to her! I haven't seen her since the day her son was born, anyway." Together, with both of them pulling an angry woman between them, they were able to get over to where Miriel was standing, and she was only slightly shocked to see who had approached her.

"Why hello there Lissa. It is a pleasure to get to see you on such a big night in your life." Snuggling her baby close to her chest, Miriel smiled at Lissa for just a second before looking to Ricken. "And you, Ricken, how have things gone for you in your first year away at university? We must do some catching up, and right now, while Laurent sleeps, might just be a perfect time."

He agreed, and they started chatting up a storm, something that would have upset Lissa had she not been transfixed at looking at the baby Miriel was holding. He was small, dressed in something that looked handmade with love, and, from what she could tell, seemed to have inherited some form of the red hair that both of his parents had. "He's so precious…" she whispered, leaning to get a closer look.

"Would you care to hold him? It would be good practice for you to reacquaint yourself with holding an infant before you have your own to raise." Just because Miriel had offered, she had to accept, and after warily unlinking arms with Maribelle she took the little boy into her care, looking down on him with such love. From the new angle, she could tell he looked just like his mother, and that made her appreciate him that much more. "You look fondly upon him, as I would expect anyone with motherhood around the corner to do with a child. Perhaps once he and your little one are older, they will be the greatest of friends."

"I'd like that, actually," she said in response, watching as the little boy gave a small yawn, his eyes closed in slumber. "I'd love for little Laurent and my baby Owain to be great friends. It would be so nice."

"What's this about our boy havin' friends before he's born?" Vaike, coming up behind Lissa and resting his elbows on her shoulders, looked down at the baby in her arms. "Nice lookin' kid, but the Vaike ain't sure he's gonna be worthy of bein' in Owain's presence."

"Oh, hush you. I'm sure they'll be the best friends ever." Lissa shrugged Vaike off of her and continued to stare in wonder at the baby she was holding. He was causing her to feel things that she wasn't sure how to react to, feelings of love and nurturing, but she knew that soon enough, she'd know exactly what to do with those desires. It was just a game of patience at that point, one that would come to its end in due time.

* * *

Owain was born in mid-July, over a week later than he had been expected and a lot bigger than anyone had figured he'd be, to the point that there hadn't been any way he was going to come into the world on his own. That dashed the (never exactly promised) dreams that Maribelle had held about getting to help with the birthing process of her best friend's child, because the sorts of medical techniques that were needed were far beyond what one entry-level law student who had dabbled in medical classes had on her, although she managed to sucker everyone into letting her be there for the birth anyway. Lissa would have preferred if it had been Chrom there in that place instead, but he had opted out of being in the room when things had started to get more complicated, saying that he wasn't going to be able to handle both of the kids that mattered to him having horror stories in terms of how they were born.

But ultimately everything was perfectly fine, and even though there were stitches and staples that hadn't been expected, at the end of the day, Lissa was able to hold the son she very much loved right next to her heart, which he already had control of with his perfect little hands decorated with ten little fingers. Everything about him was exactly as she had wanted it, nothing amiss in the slightest, and the best part about him was that he looked so much like her, yet so much like his father, that everyone who saw him in the days after his birth would argue over which parent had passed on more of their genes to him.

Of course, the loudest proponent for Owain looking most like his father was Vaike himself, who took the responsibility of having to take care of that boy faster than he'd ever taken any responsibility in his life. Fatherhood was a blessing to Vaike, especially since he could just stare at his son for hours and talk endlessly about how much the boy looked like him and what sorts of trouble that could cause in the future. But Lissa could never imagine her perfect little son ever getting in trouble, not when she'd be sitting with him and he'd just stare up at her, his eyes carrying the most innocent of gazes.

But summertime didn't just mean that they got to sit around and admire their new addition. There were still things to do relating to work; or, at least, that was the case for one of them. Trying to be fair and understanding, Chrom excused Lissa from having to go to any of the summer training sessions, just so that she could spend more time with Owain before school started and she'd have to separate from him while she worked. That meant she sat at the house all day, watching not just her son but Lucina as well, and if there was anyone more in love with the baby than his parents, it was that little girl. She meant well all the time, but her attempts at helping take care of him more often than not ended with him screaming and crying, her getting frustrated, and Lissa having to satisfy her strong motherly urges by holding her son nice and close to her until he calmed down.

By the time the school year started, she couldn't bring herself to leave him with anyone else, but at the same time she couldn't stop working without any notice. So on the first day of classes, while most of the staff was coming into the building with their books and lesson plans, she came in with a car seat, her son sleeping within it. Did Chrom approve of this decision? Not in the slightest. But he wasn't going to tell his sister that she couldn't do that, especially since he had not allowed her to not return to her position. That first day had a lot of students and almost all the teachers coming up to her to ask to see the baby, which she allowed as long as they didn't touch him. Some remarked on who they thought he looked like, some mentioned the wisps of pale blond hair on his head and how much he seemed to have, and others still just said that he was the cutest baby they'd ever seen. She took the compliments to heart, but she knew that they were just being friendly.

At every break between classes, Vaike came into her office to check up on her and Owain both, just to make sure they were fine. He talked a lot about how he was telling everyone who would listen about the wonders of being a father, and how proud it made him—and she would smile every time he said that he loved the experience. Listening to him gush on and on about the pride he felt just getting the chance to brag about someone he was half-genetically responsible for was one of those times in Lissa's life that she realized she wouldn't have ever wanted things any other way. It hadn't been perfect, and it hadn't been thought out before it happened, but everything that had happened to her over the time she'd worked at the school was the best anything that could have happened to her, and the cherry on top of that was having a son to love and treasure forever, with a man that she couldn't ever see herself without.

That evening, after almost everyone had left the building, while she waited for Vaike to finish up with whatever he was doing, Lissa found herself sitting in front of that new statue of her sister that was in the school commons. It was life-sized, so staring at it reminded her so much of when she'd sit before and stare up at the real Emmeryn, and as she could feel herself wanting to cry at the majesty of the moment, little whimpering sounds could be heard in the car seat beside her. "Aw, you're crying over Emm too, huh Owain?" she asked, quickly getting her son out of the seat and into her arms before he really did start crying. "I bet she would have loved you. No, wait, I bet she does love you. Right now."

The way the statue was erected, one of Emmeryn's arms was bent before her, as if she was meant to hold something with it, and while it wasn't one of the best ideas that Lissa had ever had, she thought to put Owain there, so that she could see what it could have been like if Emmeryn would have been able to hold him. She talked herself out of that idea quickly, especially when she looked down at her son and saw him resting on his side in her arms, one of his small little hands partially covering his face, but she could still that his infant gaze was not actually focusing on anything but was aimed in the general direction of the statue. He didn't need to be held by the statue for him to know her. She was there with them right then, sitting there looking at her replica.

Now she wasn't just Lissa's goddess, she was Owain's as well.

* * *

 **A/N: And just like that, it's over. Remember to check out the art linked in my profile (there's a couple pieces now, but I'll add more as I have the time to draw it)! Thanks for coming along this journey, and I hope you enjoyed it from beginning to end! Any reviews or favorites would be appreciated and would really show how much you liked the story...**

 **...and would be a bit of incentive to get a sequel in the works. c:**


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